Neogenesis
by M'jai
Summary: Re-uploaded revision of previously published fanfiction. Prequel to "Spira's Dream" and "Spira's Sphere" in which Shuyin's life is traced and transformed into Tidus, so that the Fayth can use him to end their own eternal summoning.
1. Chapter 1: Born to Blitz

_**Neo-Genesis**_

(Prequel to "Spira's Dream" and "Spira's Sphere")

by M'jai

Written 9/2005

Re-uploaded and revised 16 July 2010

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This is the third story in my series of fanfictions from the Final Fantasy X/X-2 games. It is the prequel to _Spira's Dream_ and _Spira's Sphere_- it would be best to read those stories first. This story is heavily dependent on the concepts originally presented in both of those. This story is primarily about Shuyin, but Tidus comes into play later because the tale is ultimately about how Tidus came to exist. Since it breaks away from the current time line, I've tried to write this story so that it is not necessary for reading book four in the series (which will pick up the current time line again), although it is helpful.

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Disclaimer:

The setting, characters, and inspiration for the plot all belong to Square Enix. Fans of the FFX and FFX-2 games will recognize which content is not mine. I do not even pretend to take credit for it. I'm merely fitting it into a larger picture. My appreciation goes out to Square Enix and their wonderful game designers for giving us such inspiring entertainment.

This is a reminder that this story is my interpretation of the story events and my imaginative take on what could have happened before the events in the game. Any resemblance between my fan-fic and others is purely unintentional. We are all playing the same game, after all, so it's pretty easy to draw some similar theories out of it.

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"... Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. That's what little boys are made of." - Old English nursery rhyme.

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Chapter 1: Born to Blitz

Four-year-old Shuyin had grown up living on the water in a houseboat. The bronze-skinned, blond-haired little boy had frequently visited the beach with his parents, since the city of his birth, Zanarkand, sprawled along the shore and out into the sea. And his father, a sports legend in the underwater game of blitzball, had the boy playing in the tides before he could even walk. But as he followed the footsteps of his father toward the indoor pool for his first day of swimming lessons, he was far from excited to be there. Something happened last summer that changed his opinion about water and made him shy away from it ever since.

Needless to say, this was an embarrassment to the blitzball champion. Jecht resolved to remedy his son's fear, but the more he pushed, the more the boy protested. Finally, when Shuyin ran crying to his mother, Dannae insisted that someone with more patience be the one to teach the boy how to swim. So, here they were at the local recreation center, ready to begin - or at least Jecht was. Little Shuyin wasn't quite so sure.

"Oh my!" The instructor beamed when she saw Jecht stroll down the side of the pool toward her. "Wow, it really is you! I thought someone had made a mistake on my registration list when I saw your name on there. It's such a pleasure to meet you! My husband and sons are big fans of the Abes. I know they'll just die when I tell them your son's in my swim class." She laughed with light embarrassment.

"Always nice to meet an Abes fan." Jecht grinned and looked down at his knee where his son was hiding behind him.

"And you must be Jecht, Jr." The swim instructor lightly joked as she crouched and held out a hand to shake his. The boy didn't respond until his dad thumped the back of his head to prompt him out of his shyness. When he slipped his small hand into hers, she smiled. "Are you wanting to swim so you can grow up to play blitzball like your daddy?"

"No," the boy honestly answered in a small voice.

Jecht's grin turned into a strained smile, but he kept his composure together. "Last summer at the beach, he was trying one of my trick shots when a wave pulled him under. He won't go anywhere near the water now. I tend to have a sink or swim philosophy about the matter, so the wife insists that he might respond better to someone else's way of doing things."

The instructor nodded in understanding and looked to Shuyin. "Well, go have a seat on the side of the pool with the other kids. I'll be right there."

"Do what she says, ... and no crying. I mean it. You're king of the pool, remember? King Tidus of the sun and the waves. I'll be sitting over there." Jecht took the boy's towel, gave his back a light push, and slapped his backside to send him on his way. Then, he headed to the benches near the wall where the other parents were seated.

With his head hung low, Shuyin walked to the end of the line of children sitting at the side of the pool and sat down next to a girl that was about a head taller than he was. She blatantly stared at him, as did all the other children that were already splashing their feet in the water. He dipped his toes into the clear water and lifted them back out watching it bead and run down his ankles. He really did not want to do this, and it made matters worse that this girl was now staring at him.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Shuyin."

"Mine's Kaila. How old are you?"

"Four."

"Me, too. So is my brother. We're twins. That means we were born at the same time." She pointed down the line to her brother that was sitting far away from her and already talking to some of the other boys. The fraternal twins both had dark brown hair and hazel irises flecked with green and gold specks, making them look almost identical. "Are you scared?"

He frowned at her assumption, even if it was correct. "No."

"You look scared."

"I'm not scared." He puffed out his ribs and folded his arms over his chest, then turned away from her, mad that he had to be there. But his defiance only made the girl giggle.

The instructor slipped into the pool from the edge and stood before her young swimmers. "Hello," she greeted everyone with a friendly smile. "My name is Miss Naori, and the first thing I want to talk to you about is how to safely get into the pool." She began her instruction with laying down the ground rules for not running or jumping. Then, she helped each child enter the water and hold onto the non-slip rail along the side under the water. But when she came to Shuyin, the boy backed away and drew his knees to his chest. "It's okay," she assured him. "I'll hold onto you, and you can hold onto the rail."

The small boy shook his shaggy mop of hair in protest.

"You won't have any fun sitting on the sidelines."

Shuyin stood to walk away, but the professional blitz player had already left the benches to intercept him. "Get back over there."

"I don't want to," the boy whined.

"Well, you're going to anyway." Jecht turned the boy's shoulders and pushed him back toward the pool.

The boy turned back around and gave his father a pleading look. "Can't I just go home?"

Disgusted, Jecht picked him up and set him back down on the pool's edge. Miss Naori reached to help the boy into the water, but he turned and hugged his father's leg.

Shuyin couldn't help himself. He tried hard not to cry, but the tears started to form in spite of his attempts to hold them back. "No! I don't want to!"

"Let go of me and get in the water," Jecht ordered through gritted teeth as he tried to keep his waning patience in check.

The boy didn't know or care that his behavior was further humiliating his father - not only was he afraid to get in the water, but he was crybaby on top of that. He just knew he didn't want any more water up his nose and down his throat. He tried to think of a good excuse. "But my leg hurts."

"Your ass is going to hurt too, if you don't do as I say." Jecht pried his arms away and picked him up again to make him face the instructor.

Shuyin turned to run away, but he was snatched up by his strong father once more and deposited back at the pool's edge. "Get in the damn water!"

"It's ... okay." Naori tried to keep the situation calm. "If it scares him that badly, he can sit and watch this time."

"If he whines his way out of it once, next time it will be worse. He's got to learn to face his fears." Angry and frustrated, Jecht crouched and turned the boy's shoulders to face him. "You live on a houseboat, for crying out loud. What if you fall off the pier or deck when your mom and I aren't around, huh? You _have_ to learn how to do this, whether you like it or not."

Through his tears, Shuyin could see Kaila laughing at him. That made him even more desperate to go home. He started to tug, hit, and kick to escape his father's grip on him. He hated Jecht at that moment. He hated him with all his little heart.

Jecht looked to the instructor with disgust. "Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard-headed way. Ready?"

Naori stretched her arms out as Jecht lifted the squirming boy and gave him a toss.

The boy cried out, but was soon choked off by water filling his mouth and nose. It was only for a second before the instructor lifted his head and shoulders above water and wrapped his shivering, rigid body securely in her arms, but he coughed and gasped for air, too scared to fight anymore. As he blinked the water from his bright blue eyes and coughed some more, he clung to her neck with white-knuckled strength. Now all the children were laughing at him.

"I've got you. You're okay. What was it your dad called you? King Tidus of the waves? My, that sounds like the name of an ocean god, doesn't it." She picked up on his father's nickname for the boy, thinking it might make him feel more courageous. "I promise I won't let go of you, okay? But if you let go of me, you'll go under again. So, hold onto me nicely, until I can show you how to blow bubbles under the water, okay?"

Shuyin continued to cry in anger and humiliation as Miss Naori's attention shifted to instructing the other children. When it came time for him to stick his face in the water, however, she had a struggle on her hands again. Eventually, she gave up trying to accomplish anything with him that day except just having him in the water.

Jecht struggled to remain on the sidelines during the instruction, but the boy could see the anger written all over his father's face. He knew what that scowl meant for the ride home. By the end of the class, the boy was worn out from the ordeal, and Miss Naori carried him out of the pool to set him down at his father's feet. She remained calm, but Shuyin could tell she was upset with him, too.

"I can't hold him like that in future classes, but I agree with you that he does need to be in the water, even if we can't get him to do anything else. If he refuses to get in next time, I'm afraid you're going to have to be the one to hold him, so I can work with the other kids."

"Go get your towel," Jecht gruffly told him and turned to speak more with the instructor.

The boy gladly left them to wrap the bulky, warm towel around his shivering shoulders. His eyes, nose, and mouth all burned of chlorine. All he wanted at that moment was to crawl into bed and escape the miserable experience.

Kaila tapped his shoulder and held out two treats. ""Want a piece of candy? You can have butterscotch or strawberry."

Shuyin sniffled and rubbed his nose with his fist, but who was he to turn down candy? "Strawberry?"

She deposited the red-wrapped treat into his prune-wrinkled palm. "You were really funny today. When I'm scared like that, my mommy always gives me a kiss." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, making him blink at her in wide-eyed disbelief. She giggled at his reaction and patted his head as if he were a puppy.

"Hey, I wanted the strawberry one," her brother complained as she gave him the butterscotch candy. "Are you going to cry like that again tomorrow?" the other boy asked him. "Because you were really noisy. Mama says I'm noisy, but that was really, _really_ noisy!" He rolled his eyes dramatically.

Shuyin's brows knit together in determination. "I'm not coming back tomorrow."

"But then you won't learn how to swim." The brown-haired boy struggled with his candy wrapper, but eventually freed the piece and popped it into his mouth. "I want to learn how to swim, so I can play blitzball."

This again. Shuyin scowled at his cold toes. "My dad's a blitzball player."

"He is? What team is he on?"

"The Abes." Shuyin unwrapped his piece of candy and ate it, taking care to lick his fingers where some of the powdered sugar rubbed off on them.

"I went to some of their games. My name is Koji. What's yours?"

"Let's go, _King Tidus,_" Jecht impatiently growled at his son as he passed them, anxious to leave the embarrassing situation behind.

Koji's nose scrunched at the odd name. "King Tidus?"

"Sometimes, my dad calls me Tidus, but my name is Shuyin," the boy corrected, balancing on one prune-wrinkled foot to inspect the bottom of the other for a moment.

"Oh. Okay. See you tomorrow, Shuyin." Koji waved. His sister, Kaila, waved beside him.

"Some time today would be nice, son," Jecht called in warning from the pool door.

"I gotta go," Shuyin told them, then ran on his toes across the rough tile to where his dad was waiting.

"What's that in your mouth? Candy?" Jechet held the door open for him.

"Kaila gave it to me."

"You've got to be kidding. You didn't deserve candy, not after that pathetic performance."

Shuyin stopped and turned to wave at his new friends before following his father back outside. He decided he would give this swim thing another try after all, but it was because he wanted to see Koji and Kaila again - not because of Jecht's threats.

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Word spread that Jecht's son was taking swim lessons, but to blitzball fans, he might as well have started the boy's spring training for the major league. Each time Shuyin passed a new level, people praised him for taking to water like a little eel. People expected great things from him, especially his father. After all, he was the son of a blitzball champion. The only person who didn't seem to care whether he passed or failed his swim levels was Koji.

In time, the two boys were holding contests with each other to see who could hold his breath under water the longest. During the course of their play, they began to develop the marathon lung capacity blitzers were best known for. And within the year, both of them had joined the local mini-league team - the Zanarkand Sea Stars.

One weekend, Koji's family was invited to join Shuyin's for a deep sea fishing trip on the ocean. While Jecht and Koji's father discussed fishing and blitzball, Dannae and the twins' mother rubbed all three children from head to toe in sun lotion, then sat in chairs on the deck to chat and supervise them while they played.

Shuyin was the first to tire of waiting for a fish to bite, so he propped his little fishing rod and returned to one of the bait buckets. Squatting over it, he pinched one of the longest worms and took it to Koji. "Look how big this one is. And it has no eyes or anything to see in the dirt with."

Equally bored with waiting, Koji propped his rod the way Shuyin had and stood to inspect the worm. "Let me hold it." He cupped his hands together.

Shuyin dropped the wriggling creature into his friend's hands.

"Uwa! It tickles! Aaah!" He laughed and swung around, opening his hands to drop the thing wherever it happened to fall - which just happened to be on his sister's shoulder.

Kaila screamed and scrambled away from the worm, letting go of her fishing rod, and losing it over the side of the boat as she ran to her mother. Koji rubbed his palms on his shorts to try to get rid of the wriggly, ticklish sensation, while Shuyin cracked up in a fit of giggles.

"What the ...?" Jecht and the other man looked over their shoulders at the frightened girl and the laughing boys.

"Shuyin and Koji threw worms at me!" Kaila wailed.

The two men glared at the boys.

"It was an accident," Shuyin explained, while still giggling. "And it was just one worm."

The two men exchanged glances of doubt.

"You did it on purpose!" Kaila accused.

"Did not!" Koji protested.

Koji's mother stood and transferred the boy's fishing rod into his sister's hands, giving him a scolding look in the process. "Well, you can just claim whatever fish he was going to catch."

"Ah! I didn't do it on purpose!" Koji made a face at his sister and turned around in a huff.

Shuyin, still giggling, picked up the worm that had caused the stir and took it back to the bait bucket. "You can help me catch my fish, Koji." Shuyin's curiosity moved him down the line to another bucket, and he pulled up the lid. "What's in this one?"

Koji drew near in curiosity to see what else Shuyin had discovered. "Uhhh, crabs! Look at those pincher-things. I wouldn't want to be pinched by one of those."

"My dad said they could pinch toes and fingers off," Shuyin told him, awed by the power of the odd little creatures as he put the lid back down, although he didn't secure it. "One time when we were at the beach, this big blue crab came out of the sand and almost bit me right here." He pointed to his foot.

"You've got a bite, boy!" Jecht called, interrupting his adventurous tale. "Come reel it in!"

Excited, Shuyin ran to his dad's side and grabbed the rod. He started to wind it in quickly when Jecht stopped him.

"No, no, no. Not like that." He demonstrated a better way to pull the fish up without losing it, then passed the rod back to his son.

"You said I could help," Koji anxiously reminded him of his promise.

Shuyin reluctantly passed his fishing rod to his friend.

"Pull easy. Keep it tight." Jecht helped Koji reel it closer.

"My turn! My turn!" Shuyin reached for his pole, unable to let his friend have all the fun.

"Musical fishing poles." Jecht chuckled and commented to Koji's dad behind him as he shifted the rod into Shuyin's hands. As the fish came to the surface, he raised the boy's arms until they were way over his head and then finally leaned over the rail to grab the line with the wiggling catch on the end of the hook.

"I caught one! I caught one!" Shuyin jumped up and down and reached for his fish.

"What did I tell you about these hooks? You want a hook through your thumb? No grabbing," Jecht gruffly warned the boy to stay back.

Shuyin obediently stayed in his place and stopped reaching, but still jumped up and down as he impatiently waited to be handed his catch.

"Kid's going to make us look like a couple of losers," he joked over his shoulder to the other man, who chuckled with him at the boy's catch. "Hey, toss me another beer, will ya?"

"Sure thing," Koji's dad agreed as he headed to the cooler.

"All right! Biggest catch for you yet, I think. There you go. It's a live wire. You got it?" Jecht asked as his son cradled the large fish in his arms against his chest.

"I got it!"

"Yay! Good catch!" His mother clapped and held up a memory sphere to get a recording of it.

Once the memory was recorded, Shuyin turned to show the fish to Koji. "See, these red feather things are his gills. And he has little teeth." He ran his finger over the inside of the gasping jaws.

Koji touched a hand to the fish's rainbow scales and cautiously stuck a finger in its mouth, too.

"And if you poke their eyes from one side, they'll turn inside out," Shuyin informed him.

"That's gross." Kaila had come to see the fish, too. "Poor fish. Why would you want to poke its eyes like that?"

Shuyin shrugged. "They're dead anyway after they've been out of the water for a while. It's kind of cool to see what's underneath. You want to hold it?" He held the fish out to her, but as he released it, it found some more energy and flipped and flopped right out of his arms onto Kaila. The girl screamed again and ran back to her mother, leaving Shuyin and Koji to try to grab the thrashing fish.

"Knock it off!" Jecht pulled his son's shoulder away from the fish. Koji automatically stepped out of the blitzplayer's way, too. Jecht angrily snatched the fish up by its tail and carried it to the cooler filled with water for any fish they caught. "If you can't behave nicely to Kaila, I'm shipping your ass back inside, got it?"

"But -"

"No buts!" Jecht scowled in warning to his son, pointing a stern index finger and a beer can at him. "Little hellions," he grumbled under his breath, returning to his own fishing reel to check it.

The blond-haired boy stared at the closed catch container with a pout. How dare his father ruin a perfectly good day and take his fish away from him.

"What's a ... hellion?" Koji asked.

"I don't know, but it means he's mad." Shuyin sat down on one of the insulated buckets and dropped his chin into his fists.

"It's all Kaila's fault." Koji sat down beside of him and copied his pose.

Kaila came forward giggling behind her small hand. "You're sitting on the crabs you know."

Koji's and Shuyin's eyes widened and they jumped off the bucket with yells, not realizing which container they'd chosen to sit on. The bucket tumbled sideways and the unsecured lid fell off, spilling water and small blue crabs onto the deck. All three children screamed and tumbled over each other running toward the cabin door to seek safety from the killer pincers.

))((

Jecht cursed under his breath and whipped the towel from his neck that he'd been using to dry perspiration. "Sweet mother of Baaj on a hot summer day! I'm going to be stringing that boy up by his ankles before we dock again!" He swiftly tried to scoop as many of the crabs back into the box as possible before they could scuttle away and without stepping on any of them.

Dannae laughed and turned the sphere recorder on him. "Like father, like son. I seem to remember your father telling me about a time when you went shrimping and knocked over the -"

"Don't even go there!" Jecht laughed. "That is _your_ kid, not mine. You had fun with the ice cream man while I was at a game or something."

Dannae laughed some more and turned the sphere recorder off, giving him a big kiss for catching the last of the loose crabs their son had spilled. Yes, Jecht was gruff, arrogant, and easily annoyed. But he could also be funny, warm, loyal, and honest. He was a hard worker, and he gave everything his all until he had nothing left to give. Jecht was one of a kind in her eyes - predictable, yet still full of surprises. That was why she loved him.


	2. Chapter 2: Forging a Guardian's Soul

Chapter 2: Forging a Guardian's Soul

Though Shuyin lived on the harbor and Koji lived in one of the high-rise apartments overlooking the bay in the Neon District, they developed an almost daily routine between those places. The boys would meet on the pier near Shuyin's houseboat and walk to school together. After lessons, they attended blitzball practice together, … until the coaches chased them out of the water. Then after that, they would walk to Koji's apartment and play games until it was time for Shuyin to head home for dinner.

Their favorite game was a holographic race called "Viper Maze", and Shuyin was close to beating Koji's high score, so the competition was fierce when Kaila and her girlfriends came into the living room.

"Are you _still _playing that stupid game? You've played it for the thousandth time already," she commented, flipping one of her long, brown piggy tails over her shoulder.

"Shut up, Kaila. You're going to ruin my concentration." Koji was frantic to keep up with every corner that his snake turned, catching mice and frogs as he went along while avoiding the hawks that were dive-bombing him. He had just caught one of the special blue mice that would transform his snake into a robotized machina thing, giving it extra speed and fire power, and he was bent on overtaking Shuyin.

Sitting forward on his toes and knees, tongue poised in the corner of his mouth, Shuyin thumbed his controls with equally intense concentration.

Kaila rolled her eyes and touched the light sensor to brighten the room. "Just ignore them," she explained to her two friends as she opened the closet.

"What are you doing?" Koji shouted at her glancing over his shoulder. "Turn the light back off! It's killing the graphics! I can't see what I'm doing!"

"I need to see where my jump rope is," she fussed back at her brother.

"Kaila! Turn it off!" Shuyin joined the argument, but continued to play.

"No. And you can't make me." She stuck her tongue out at them.

Before Koji could complain any further about it, Shuyin's snake crossed the finish line. "Woohoo!" The blond boy jumped up from his spot on the floor with a howl and began to dance around his friend. "I beat your high score! Look at that!"

"Only because my stupid sister turned the light on, and I couldn't see very good!" Koji hated to lose to anyone, especially at his favorite game.

Shuyin danced and wiggled his backside at his friend. "Oh yeah, I _did_ it. I really _did_ it. I really _beat_ ya. I kicked your _boo_-teh," he sang. "I'm the best!" He meant no harm in gloating. He just loved winning. But he had no talent at being gracious about it. Shuyin had learned how to act like a winner from his dad.

Koji shoved him out of the way and stood in a huff. "Stop bragging about it!" Marching to the light, he snapped itoff and glared at his sister. Kaila glared right back and him and turned it back on. He snapped it off again. She snapped it on, but then covered the switch with her hand. "Let go or I'm telling mom!" Koji threatened and tried to pry his sister's hand away from the wall.

"I need the light to find my jump rope! Leave it alone!"

As the twins' argument escalated into a pushing-shoving match, Shuyin paused in his victory dance. He could tell Kaila's girlfriends were debating whether to help her gang up on Koji. Since he was an only child, Shuyin never quite knew what to do when quarreling broke out between the siblings. But when the other girls made a grab for Koji's arms, he forgot all about his victory and scanned the room for some kind of help to break up the fight. He considered throwing the pillows on the sofa at them, but that would probably make Koji and Kaila's mother angry - especially if he accidentally hit the lamp. Then, his eyes fell on the small bag on the tea table, and an impish smile touched his lips as he came up with the perfect solution. "Hey, Kaila, want to see what I bought on the way home from school today? It's really cool!" he yelled as he snatched the bag from the table and held it up with a shake.

Kaila stopped tugging at her brother's arm, and Koji pulled free. He was still angry, but then saw what Shuyin was holding and grinned. "Yeah, go see what he's got in the bag," he encouraged.

"Is it candy?" Kaila and the other girls drew closer in curiosity.

"Well, I was going to buy some sour balls, but today I wanted these instead." Shuyin stuck his hand into the bag and scratched around inside of it, as if counting out pieces to share, then drew it out with a quick jerk and a dramatic yell. Several authentic-looking rubber snakes flew into their faces. The trick made the boys suffer several ear-piercing screams, but it proved amazingly effective at clearing the girls away from the light switch. Koji and Shuyin laughed out loud, picking up the rubber snakes and dangling them in the girls' faces as they chased them around the living room.

"Quiet!" someone shouted above the noise.

All five children froze in place with guilty expressions and looked toward the kitchen where the twins' mother stood with an unpleasant frown. "What in the world is going on in here?"

"Shuyin threw rubber snakes at us, and Koji won't let me turn on the light!" Kaila pointed to the architects of her misery.

Shuyin's brows drew together beneath his scruffy bangs and his face pinched in distaste. No wonder Koji hated having a sister.

"You put these right back where they came from, young man," their mother fussed at him. "And don't take them out again, or I will be keeping them on top of the fridge for the rest of your visit. Koji, leave the switch alone, or you'll break it. And turn that game off! You've been on it all day. Go burn off some of that energy outside, instead."

When his mother finished scolding them, Koji looked to Shuyin and snickered. After she headed back into the kitchen, both boys giggled with pride at their mischief and bent to collect the fake reptiles back into their bag.

"Hey!" Shuyin complained as Kaila heeled the head of his most favorite one on her way to the closet. "Stop stepping on my snakes!"

"Hmpf!" Kaila turned up her nose, grabbed her jump rope, and left with her friends.

"Blaaaah ..." Koji wiggled one of the snakes before Shuyin's nose and laughed. He used a hand to sweep his longish, brown bangs from his eyes and then held up a hand for a high five.

Shuyin returned the gesture and giggled some more. It didn't matter that they had been called down for the stunt. The girls had been successfully frightened. Life was good.

))((

On the deck of the houseboat, seven-year-old Shuyin placed his foot on his blitzball to position it just right. Then, he backed up and took a short run to kick it, but he missed it and fell down, instead. Standing up, he stared at the ball with a discouraged, heavy sigh. He had just come back from one of his father's Abes games. He had worn his small Abes fan clothing and had his head scrubbed by his father's teammates. And he had endured being called Jecht Jr., Sea Squirt, Tidus, Sport, and multiple other brusque or names that glossed over the one given to him at birth. He was always excited to see his father's games, but he always came home vividly reminded of the difference between professional play and mini-leagues. He always ended up feeling disappointed in himself, so he didn't notice his dad had come home, until he looked up and found him mocking his discouraged stance.

Still half-dressed in his Abes uniform, Jecht was high on his team's hard-earned win. "Well, well. Trying to follow in my footsteps, are you? I usually charge for lessons, you know. That shot is done ... like this!" The blitzball pro kicked and punched the ball against the center mast of the houseboat until he had it angled high into the air. Then, he leaped into the sky in a spinning flip to slam it toward an imagined goal. His feet touched ground as if the shot had been effortless. "You can't do it, kid. But don't worry, my boy. You're not the only one. No one else can do it. I'm the best!"

Shuyin had turned his back on the man while he was showing off his spectacular shot. He steamed silently to himself, but it wasn't the first time his father had mocked his inability at the sport. Walking away without answering, he went inside and plopped down on one of the curved sofas in the center of the living room. Then, he aimed the remote control at the two large, flat screens that hung near the opposite wall.

Jecht chuckled at him as he followed and tossed the retrieved ball so that it bonked his son on the back of the head. "Is that how you're going to play your own game this weekend? Missing a kick like that? I think you'd better practice a little more before you watch movies."

Annoyed at being targeted in jest, Shuyin rubbed the back of his head. "Can you come watch me play this time?" he dared to ask.

"You want me to skip out the Abes to watch a bunch of Sea Squirts?"

"Sea _Stars_," Shuyin indignantly corrected. Jecht had been calling them squirts, instead of stars, ever since the boy was signed onto the league, but his son didn't find the name switch very funny.

"I'm bound to a contract, boy. I have to do what the contract says." He sighed in a tired manner and went into the kitchen for a snack. "Damn contracts," he muttered to himself as he went.

Shuyin knew that probably meant he wasn't coming, ... again.

Dannae walked into the living room as Jecht left and was headed for the kitchen as well, when she spotted her son sprawled on the sofa. "Don't you have something else to do before you watch something tonight? Homework and piano practice come to mind." She took the remote from him and turned off the screens.

The boy groaned. If his father wasn't telling him to practice blitzball, his mother was telling him to practice piano. With a heavy sigh, Shuyin pushed himself up from the sofa and went to his bedroom to sit down at his keyboard. But as he stared at the keys, all he could think about was his father's famous trick shot and how he mocked him. With a growl, he hit the keyboard with his fists and then slumped forward, banging his head against the keys as well.

His mother, who had been passing by, paused at the awful noise and looked in the door. "Shu?"

The boy lifted his head and rubbed the bump he'd given himself above one eye. "Will you be coming to my game this weekend?"

Dannae chuckled as she moved to his side and parted his sun-streaked bangs to examine his forehead. "Of course. Unless you do yourself in here and now for the sake of a few piano lessons."

"Do you think Dad will come?"

His mother started to speak, but then paused and lowered her tone, reminding herself that Jecht was in the next room. "It's the All-City Tournament for the mini-leagues, and Sea Stars are up for the finals. I'm sure he wants to go, and I know he would if he could. But … he's under a lot of stress right now from the owner and manager of the team. Your game schedules conflict, and his team's wins are what keep food on our table, so he has to give them priority."

"What if the Sea Stars don't win?"

"Well, then at least you made second place. That's still something to be proud of."

"Second place isn't good enough! What if I mess up? I just _have_ to learn how to kick a good shot!" He banged the keyboard with his fist again.

"Shuyin!" His mother gave him a firm tone of reprimand and immediately pulled his hand away from the instrument. "This keyboard cost a lot of money. I'm not going to let you use it for venting. You know better than to lose your temper like that."

"He loses his temper all the time!" the boy angrily answered.

"_You_ are not your father," she sharply answered, keeping her voice low and giving him a stern look that he should do the same. "Your father is a passionate man, openly expressing his likes and dislikes without thinking of the consequences. Sometimes, yes, he has a short fuse when he's frustrated, but he also has a stubborn determination to stick with difficulties until he conquers them." While Jecht had spontaneous moments of disorderly conduct - some of which were haunting his contracts even now - Dannae had tried very hard to teach her son better ways to channel his impulses. Only when she was certain that he would not hit the keyboard again, was she willing to release his hand. "You can learn from him, but you are not your father, Shuyin," she firmly repeated before kissing the top of his head and walking away.

The boy hung his head and glared at the song sheet facing him. "No, I'm not, ... am I."

))((

"Congratulations to this year's All-City Blitzball Champions - the Sea Stars!" the announcer called as the small gathering of parents and friends at the end of the half-filled sphere pool cheered and applauded.

Still dressed in his water-logged, blue uniform with the bright yellow starfish on the chest, Shuyin eagerly scanned the crowd. He had come to the game with Koji's family, as usual, and played without being able to see the spectators. But now that the teams were ready to receive their awards, he was eager to know where his own family was sitting. His dad wasn't here - no surprise - but at least that meant Jecht wouldn't be mocking him from the sidelines for the number of times he missed the ball or fumbled a pass. His mother, however, usually tried to split her time between her husband's and son's games, and this wasn't just any game. It was the city tournament for the mini-leagues, and he was on the winning team. That counted for something, right? His mother would be here. She had _said_ she would be here. Yet, Shuyin couldn't find his mother's face in the crowd.

Koji stood next to him in line, waiting anxiously for his name to be called. When his moment of recognition came, the boy stepped forward, bowed after receiving his miniature trophy cup, and returned to his place in line. Then he waved at his sister and parents, who waved back at him, and showed the trophy to his best friend, grinning with pride their shared achievement.

Shuyin grinned as well, but felt compelled to scan the stands one more time. Where was she?

"And last but not least," the announcer spoke to the small gathering, "playing right forward, we shouldn't be surprised to see the son of the Abes most valuable player standing in our winner's circle. Let's all give a big hand to Little Tidus! He's got Jecht's blood, folks, so I'm sure we'll be seeing lots more of him in the future!"

Somewhat chagrined, Shuyin stepped forward, answering to the name his dad teased him with since his near-drowning incident when he was three. The crowd, however, didn't know the reason for the name. And as he received his first-ever championship prize, they cheered. Koji's parents cheered. Even Kaila cheered. All those people were cheering … for him. For a long moment, Shuyin stood still, soaking in his moment of glory. That was when he realized something that would change his life forever. However badly his father thought he played, other people thought he played well.

"Congratulations once again to the Zanarkand Sea Stars! This year's All-City champions!" the announcer repeated.

Shuyin returned to his place in line, and at their coach's cue, all of the Sea Stars bowed to the officials and their supporters in the stands, in gratitude for their honors. With the closing ceremony done, they walked off the small awards stage at the end of the pool and headed for their friends and family in the bleachers.

"Great game!" Koji's father congratulated them. "Did you have fun out there?"

Shuyin blinked in surprise at the question. He had been trying so hard to keep up with the ball that he had not thought about the game being fun.

"I had so much fun, I want to do it again next year!" Koji responded. "Did you see my trophy?"

"Let me see that trophy." Koji's father accepted the offering. "_That_ is a mighty fine trophy. I know just where we'll put it when we get home."

The Sea Stars coach grinned and shook hands with Koji's father as he came into their circle. "A fine trophy indeed. Hard earned! And I'm letting everyone know there's going to be a party at the Waterwall Sports Diner in about thirty minutes for all the team members and their families."

"Alright!" Koji took his trophy back from his dad.

"You!" The coach playfully bopped Shuyin on the head with his game folder. "Bring Jecht with you, if you can. We'd love to see have him celebrate with us, even if he couldn't attend the match."

"Think your mom will let you come to the party with us?" Koji asked.

"Mmm ... I don't know." Shuyin scanned the faces of the dispersing crowd once more, but still didn't see his mother among them.

"Did Dannae not come this time?" Koji's mother asked, scanning the crowd as well.

Shuyin didn't know how to excuse his mother's absence. "I don't see her."

"That's odd. I know she was planning on coming to this one. Well, never mind. You're both soaking wet and need to get out of those uniforms before you go anywhere. Go change, and we'll drop you off at the docks so you can ask about it. If she can't take you, then we can. Okay?"

"Okay." Shuyin smiled as he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to face Kaila's usual candy choices. That too, had become part of the expected routine over the last couple of years.

Koji started to reach for the strawberry one, but Kaila closed her hand over it and offered him the other flavor instead. "Shuyin likes the strawberry ones."

"Well, that's not fair," Koji protested. "So do I. How come he gets to have it?"

"He made more kicks than you did." Kaila gave Shuyin the one in the red wrapper.

"Did not."

"Did too," she insisted.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Shuyin was content to let them argue as usual while he ate his candy.

"Ask Mama. I counted to see which one of you did better."

"Kaila, that's not very nice." Her mother scolded her.

"Shuyin had two more kicks than you did." The girl pressed her brother for his failure.

"Keh! You're just letting him have the one he wants because you like him." Koji got in his sister's face to taunt her. "Kaila's got a crush on Shuyin!"

Shuyin nearly choked on his candy.

"I do not!" Kaila reached across Shuyin to smack her brother.

"Do too!" Koji giggled. "Kaila and Shuyin sitting in a tree - k-i-s-s-i-n-g -"

"That's enough of that." Their mother pulled the twins apart and gave her son the scolding look this time. "Go put some dry clothes on."

Shuyin managed to recover from nearly swallowing his candy, but he looked at Kaila as if she had some kind of contagious disease. He knew Koji was just teasing her, but what if it were true? He'd never had a girl like him before - at least, not that he knew of. He wasn't sure what to do about it. Kaila folded her arms in a huff and turned her back on her brother. Her eyes cut toward Shuyin, but he was trying to avoid all eye-contact with her now. He turned and ran for the locker room to change clothes like their mother said.

))((

"The Snake" was the affectionate name the boys called the transport system that worked on a blend of magic and machina to move people around the city at a such high speed that it was almost too hard to see except for the flashes of light at the intersection points. When it stopped at the harbor near Shuyin's home, Koji's family stopped at the small waiting station, so the boys could run to the docks and ask Dannae about going to the party. "You can have the strawberry candy next time, okay?" Shuyin tried to appease his guilt over the Kaila incident by making the offer.

"Okay. Did you see her face when I said that?" Koji cracked up again. "She really likes you, or she wouldn't have been that mad about it."

"Gimme a break." Shuyin rolled his eyes. "After all the things we've done to her? There's no way!"

"Girls are weird, Shu." Koji stopped and put a supportive hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Trust me. If you pick on them, they just keep coming back for more." He shook his head at the astonishing truth.

"Well, ... what should I do about it?" Shuyin asked for his friend's expert advice.

"If you want her to go away, you're going to have to ignore her."

Shuyin nodded with determination. "Ignore her."

"Right! If you want her to hate you, ignore her. Oh, and you might have to play a few bad games, too, so she's not impressed."

Shuyin blinked at him, aghast at the suggestion. "I can't _try_ to play badly. I like winning."

Koji sighed as if his friend were a hopeless case. "Then get used to lots of girls liking you."

Shuyin made a face and gave the situation some thought. "Think Kaila will still bring me candy if I ignore her?"

"Probably not."

"Hmm ..." More girls and less candy - Shuyin wasn't sure this winning stuff was worth it. "I still want to win, but maybe I can bring my own candy after games. I just have to put it somewhere other than my pocket to keep it from getting wet."

"Ask your mom to hold it for you." He looked down at the trophy in his hand and grinned again. "Let's go show her what she missed!"

Catching Koji's enthusiasm, Shuyin ran the rest of the distance down the pier to the houseboat. "Wait until my dad sees this! He'll really want to come to my games when he sees that we won!" At the front door, he grabbed the handle and pushed the door open wide, letting Koji into the living room behind him.

The boys arrived just in time to witness the blitzball pro striking his wife with a back-handed slap, knocking her to the floor. Jecht reeked of alcohol again, and Dannae had been crying. Holding a hand to her stinging cheek, she looked apologetically to her wide-eyed son and his friend. Shuyin and Koji stood mute for a long moment, neither knowing what to say or do about what they had just witnessed.

"What are you looking at? You got something to say to me, boy?" Jecht bellowed to his son.

Shuyin ran to his bedroom.

Scared at what might happen next in the awkward situation, Koji ran with him.

Shuyin slammed his door shut behind them and pitched the championship cup across the room at the wall. He threw it so hard that it left a large dent in the plaster before it landed softly on the bed. Then, the blond-haired boy dragged the brown-haired one underneath the bed with him, where he always hid when Jecht was angry, … especially if he'd been drinking. It was safe under there. Shuyin's heart raced as he clenched his fists and teeth. No words could express his anger, hurt, frustration, and embarrassment at that moment - only a throaty growl.

"Maybe we should go to my house instead," Koji quietly suggested. If he had been honest, though, he would have admitted to being afraid to cross the living room to go back outside.

Shuyin shook his head. "No. I need to be here for her. He only hurts her when he thinks I'm not looking. This is why she couldn't come. I shouldn't have gone, but … I thought he had his own game." Tears beaded his lashes, and he shook his head again at his father's unforgivable actions. "I hate him so much. I hate him!"

The boys both heard Jecht's voice rise in volume again as he yelled at his wife, but they couldn't make out what he was saying. Something was thrown and smashed. Then, the front door to the boathouse slammed, and everything became silent.

Shuyin sniffled and looked to Koji. "This is your chance to leave. Quick! Before he comes back!" He crawled from under the bed and pulled Koji out behind him. "Don't tell anyone what you saw, please! Don't tell anyone!" Shuyin opened his bedroom door and looked down the hall toward to see if it was safe. The living room was clear, so his mother must have gone down to the lower level bedroom. Gesturing for his friend to follow, Shuyin led Koji to the front door, where he repeated the same paranoid behavior to see if the coast was clear outside. "Please, don't tell anyone," he repeated in a tearful whisper. "Nobody knows he gets like this. Nobody would believe us, so, just don't say anything, okay?"

"What about the party?"

"I need to stay with my mom. If he comes back, I might need to get help for her."

Koji was troubled about leaving Shuyin behind in a dangerous situation, but he guessed his friend was used to this kind of thing, from the looks of it. "I'll ... see you tomorrow at school, then?"

"Mh. Go!" Shuyin shut the front door and ran back to his room. Slamming his own door in anger once again, he climbed onto his bed and curled into his pillows. Cradling his trophy in his hands, he tried not to cry, but the tears betrayed his attempt to command them.


	3. Chapter 3: Something Good

Chapter 3: Something Good

"Shu? May I come in?" His mother knocked on the door and opened it.

Shuyin angrily rolled onto his side with his back to her.

"I'm … so sorry I couldn't make it to your game. I was waiting for Jecht to come home, so I could talk him into going with me to catch the end of yours, but ... things didn't go as I planned." Dannae came to his bed and sat down behind him, rubbing a hand over his shoulder and back. "How did your game go?"

"Why do you let him treat you like that?" the boy yelled at his mother, blaming her as much as father. He was humiliated that his friend had witnessed their family problems and angry that he had been powerless to stop it.

"He's ... not himself when he starts drinking. I'm sorry you had to see it. He's gone to the beach to practice, but he'll be all better tomorrow morning and apologize. You'll see. He always apologizes when he realizes he's made a mistake. He really does love us, Shu. He's just … very stressed, and he needs help. I was trying to tell him to get help, but ... " Dannae touched her sore cheek and noticed the small golden cup clutched in his hand. Reaching over her son's stomach, she drew the trophy into her own hands so she could read the inscription.

"Tidus?" She gave a sad, half of a laugh at the wrong name on his prize. "You will never be rid of that name now, will you? At least, you've managed to turn it into something good." Drawing her son into her arms, she brushed the damp spry hair from his temple to give him a kiss. "I'm very proud of you. But … stay out of his way tonight, until after he's had a good sleep. I know he'll be proud of you, too, if you show this to him tomorrow, instead. Maybe, it will even coax him to attend more of your games." She stood and placed the small trophy on top of his dresser before quietly leaving his room and pulling the door shut behind her.

The boy half-heartedly kicked off his sneakers and stared at them feeling exhausted, physically and emotionally. How was he ever going to face Koji again? He was probably already telling his whole family about what he had seen. Grabbing his duffle bag, he pulled out his wet uniform and took it to the bathroom to drape over the side of the tub to dry.

Jecht didn't come home from practice that day. In fact, he was never to come home again.

))((

"But it's been nearly ..."

"It's been nearly a day already."

"Perhaps you could go look for us."

"People are searching for him now."

"Thank you."

Shuyin tried to ignore the voices behind him as his mother spoke to people he didn't even know on the deck of their houseboat. Jecht had mysteriously disappeared after going to the ocean to practice, but Blitzball players didn't drown, ... not unless they'd been drinking or encountered fiends. Both were possibilities with Jecht. The request for the search party had somehow leaked to the public, and now concerned fans were beginning to cluster on the pier. Fed up with the parade of sympathy for someone he felt didn't deserve it, Shuyin turned to go back inside, but was intercepted by his mother. Dannae crouched before him and tried to read his unhappy expression in spite of her own worry. "Who cares whether he comes back or not?" he grumped in complaint.

Dannae couldn't believe he would say something like that about his own father. If anything happened to Jecht, not only was the love of her life gone, but she was left with a child to raise on her own. Both thoughts devastated her. "But he might die."

"Fine, let him!"

She had not realized that though he was only seven, his feelings were so strong. "Do you ... Do you hate him so?"

He nodded.

For him to say such things, his anger must have run much deeper than she ever imagined. "But if he dies, you'll never be able to tell him how much you hate him."

Shuyin ran past her to the front door and pulled it open. Then, he ran back to his room to climb onto his bed. He pounded a fist into his pillow before throwing it across the room. He had been so angry at his father for missing his game, making his mother miss his game, and then hitting her, that he honestly enjoyed the peacefulness of his home without Jecht's overbearing presence. But when he found his mother by the com sphere with eyes red and swollen from crying, he felt guilty for having enjoyed that peace. It just wasn't fair! He would never be able to escape his father, even if he wasn't there.

))((

Several days later, Koji walked up the pier to meet Shuyin to walk to school together as usual, but this was a very unusual morning. It had finally been aired on the digital com cast that Zanarkand's blitzball hero was missing. Koji's family had known about it the day after Jecht didn't return home from practice, but the boy had said nothing to his family about the argument he and Shuyin had witnessed when they entered the home after the tournament. "Any word on your dad, yet?"

"Nope." Shuyin stopped drawing, stood, and skipped the stone across the water.

"Are you sure you feel like going to school?"

"I don't have a choice. Mom wants me out of the house. She says it's not good for me to be around her when she cries too much." Shuyin lifted his chin and squinted one eye into the sun as it shone through the bright blue sky over Zanarkand's tallest buildings. "I've been thinking, though. There's nothing I can do about it, you know? I couldn't make him be nicer. I couldn't make her leave him. I couldn't do anything. So, I've decided that from now on, I'm just going to think about what I can do. It's a good thing that he's gone, right? She's safe now, and I can have fun without being scared of him." A smile found its way to Shuyin's lips. His blue eyes almost sparkled with new life, in spite of his inner pain.

Koji looked at the other boy with unspoken worry. He knew his friend must have felt like screaming inside. Shuyin didn't smile much when the topic of his dad came up. In fact, Shuyin didn't smile much at all, unless he was into mischief. Maybe Jecht's absence was a good thing, after all.

))((

Life went on without Jecht, though it was never quite the same. Dannae had to get two jobs to try to support herself and her young son, but even then her salary was not as much as the professional blitz player had made. As her worries increased, her smiles decreased, but she never shared her burdens with her son. His smiles, she noticed, had actually increased. He seemed more energetic, more confident, and just plain happier - as if he were free to be himself, rather than his father's son, for the first time in his life. That wasn't really the case because Zanarkand would always know him as Jecht Jr., but the immediate burden of coping with Jecht's drunken mockery had been lifted all the same. Now, instead of trying to be perfect for his dad, Shuyin could concentrate on trying to be perfect for his own sake.

By age eleven, his determination to improve his game skills led to daily practices on the playground at school, in the pool for the school team, and then again on the deck at home when he should have been doing his homework. During one of those playground practice sessions, Shuyin stood with his foot on the ball and crouched low facing a wall. A semi-circle of boys stood behind him and waited to see the risky move he said he was going to try to do. When he was ready, he lifted the ball into the air with the toe of his shoe and volleyed it higher with his knee. He gave it a heads-up to send it high, then he sprang up after it. His foot touched the ball, but it wasn't a strong enough contact to kick it. Discouraged, he arched his back and tucked his legs to complete the rotation of the flip, landing on his toes, but then falling forward on his knees. He winced at the hit to an already skinned left kneecap, but then stood and went to fetch the ball. The boys that had gathered around him on the playground hooted and laughed.

With irritation, he excused his inability to make the kick and retrieved the ball, bringing it back to their circle. "It's harder to do on land than in the pool. I can do it in the pool."

"Suuuuure you can. Hey, can you do the Jecht Shot Mach III yet?" one of the boys asked.

"What's the Mach II look like?" another asked, rubbing his hands as if about to receive some insanely important secret.

"The first one is probably the easiest. That's probably why he always did the third one. It's the best one," a third boy gave his opinion.

Shuyin looked at the boys gathered around him and frowned slightly. "There was no one or two. He just called it that to hook the crowd."

"Yeah, right." One of the boys waved off the ridiculous notion. "They're probably so old that everyone's just forgotten about them."

"Who cares about the Jecht shot. I was trying to do a sphere shot. That's hard, too, you know? Not many people can do that one either."

"I've never seen you do a sphere shot in the pool," Koji told Shuyin, raising the stakes on his claim in front of the other boys.

"Can you do a sphere shot?" one of the boys asked Koji, instead.

"Almost. I just can't get high enough to do a flip. But watch this!" The boy bumped the ball out of Shuyin's hand and flipped backwards into a handstand, kicking it clear across the playground. Then, he came out of the handstand the way that he kicked up into it.

The boys in the circle laughed and congratulated Koji for the powerful inverted kick.

Shuyin angered that his best friend was showing him up, but then ran after the ball, which had rolled right into a circle of girls. "Hey, Kaila! Get the ball for me, will ya?" he called.

There were whispers and giggles in the circle as he jogged near. Kaila picked up the ball, but held onto it rather than sending it back to him. "You didn't say please," she answered in a rather smart tone of voice.

He frowned impatiently at her delay. "Just throw it back to me."

She frowned at his rudeness. "Maybe I don't want to."

"Because you throw like a _girl_?" he taunted.

Kaila scowled at his remark. "I'll show you how a girl throws!" She drew back the ball and pitched it toward him as hard as she could.

Shuyin grinned at getting the exact response he wanted from her, but he kept a careful eye on the flying object headed right for his face. Running backwards to stay ahead of it, he flipped backwards onto his hands and kept the ball's probable position in his mind, even though he couldn't physically see it. His shoe made solid contact this time and sent the ball spinning back toward the boys at the other end of the playground. It was low and hit the ground, but he was so excited to finally complete the trick that he didn't care about the quality of the shot, or the fact that he landed on his backside in the dirt afterward. He was satisfied to hear the boys behind him shouting hoots of admiration this time, but he was surprised that the girls in front of him were "oohing" and "aahing" the performance, as well.

"I did it!" He jumped up from the ground and hugged Kaila, who was staring at him open-mouthed. "Woo hoo! I did it!" Shuyin bounced around in a circle with her until his enthusiasm had her laughing with him. "I've been working on that shot my whole life, and I finally did it!"

When he finally released her, she laughed and patted him on the head the way she used to when they were younger, although he had caught up to her in height now. "That was an amazing trick! I didn't know you could do that."

Still high on his accomplished feat, he playfully swatted her hand away. "Stop petting me. Do I look like a dog or something?"

"Well, … actually you _have_ always reminded me of one of those little mop-dogs with hair that flops over its eyes." She snickered and pushed down the front of his bangs making her girlfriends giggle.

"Hey, you're right. He does kinda look like one of those little poochie-dogs," one of the other girls agreed.

"Can't you just picture him with a little bow in his hair?" Another girl snickered and pulled his bangs up in a little point.

"No way!" Taking her wrist, he pulled her hand away.

"Shuyin the Shih Tzu!" A third girl teased in a way that made all of them laugh.

Before he knew it, all the girls were patting his head as if he was some kind of pet. "Ahhh! Get away from me!" Folding his arms over his head, he tried to back away, but even he had to admit the comparison was funny.

"Seriously, though, that was a really good back flip, Shuyin," the girl that had made the bow comment complimented to make up for her teasing.

"Do you do gymnastics?" another asked.

"No, I just watched my dad do it at his games and practiced on my own," he admitted.

"You're probably going to be even better than your dad someday."

"You blitz for the school team, right?" a girl with bouncy red curls asked.

He scratched the back of his head, wondering where this was going. "Uh-huh."

"You should try that shot at your next game," Kaila suggested, following her friend's train of thought. "Well, except for the part where you fall on your butt," she added, making the other girls snicker at his landing once more.

"Nah, because if I mess up, then everyone will laugh at me - just like you're doing now."

"We're not laughing because you messed up," a girl with long strawberry-blond hair told him. "We're laughing because it was cute."

Shuyin blinked in dismay and blushed slightly. _Cute?_ Since when was falling on his butt cute? That's not what his friends would have called it. Then again, this definitely wasn't the kind of attention he was used to getting from his friends.

"Well, it's looks really cool even if you don't score with it," another girl with short black hair added. "But if you _do_ score with it, everyone will be even happier to see it."

He grinned back at them, glad to have their encouragement. "Well, ... maybe if I get a little better - ouch!" A blitz ball had suddenly slammed into the back of his head. While the girls laughed again, he winced, rubbed his head, and turned around to see who had beaned him with it.

The other boys had closed the distance between their groups on the playground, and Koji, leader of the pack, confronted him in complaint. "You're wasting our lunch break. What are you doing over here?"

"Did you see my sphere shot?" Shuyin asked with a big grin.

"Yeah. Not bad. But it wasn't a _real _sphere shot. You touched down for the flip."

"Well, at least I kicked it."

"But your hands were on the ground. It's not a real sphere shot unless you do the complete circle in the air."

Shuyin picked up the ball and moved outside the gathering. He gave the ball a toss and then flipped backwards to try the shot again. He missed the ball this time, but he managed to jump high enough and rotate quick enough to do the dangerous flip without using his hands. His landing was similar to his first attempt, but harder, and his ankle sent out a sharp pain of warning that it had taken as much as it could handle for one day before he fell back on his rump again. The ball landed dead on the ground behind him. Since he didn't kick the ball, the boys were unimpressed. They responded with taunts, scoffing remarks, and jokes.

The girls, however, were impressed by his attempt. "Are you okay?" one of them asked.

"That looked like it hurt," said another, as they tried to help him stand.

It did hurt. It hurt really bad, but he refused to cry or admit he was in pain. "I'll pull it together someday," he answered Koji, dusting off his hands. "Bet I can learn it before you can."

"You're on." Koji accepted the challenge, though his confidence and humor about learning the stunt wasn't as pumped at his friend's.

"So, let's see it, then," Shuyin dared him. "Can you do a sphere shot any better?"

Koji picked up the ball and juggled it lightly, trying to hide his uncertainty. Before he could toss it into the air, however, it was snatched by one of the teachers on patrol in the school yard.

"Oh, no you don't. We're not having any broken skulls out here because of daredevil stunts. Save it for the pool, or I'm going to send one or all of you to detention." She walked away with the ball, leaving all of them with long faces.

"Aww, man!" Shuyin loudly complained and kicked a clump of dirt up from the ground.

Koji seemed relieved at first to not have to try to show up his best friend's trick shot, but then he stomped away to find something else to do with what remained of their lunch break.

About a year later, Shuyin won that challenge. The year after that, he had perfected the shot enough to score with it during practices, so his coach finally allowed him to use it in games. When the shot came through and won a point for the team, the crowd cheered, his coach beamed with pride, and the other team was watched stunned as they realized their mini-league skills were up against a professional trick shot. Not only had Koji lost the bet, but he knew there was no hope of catching up to Jecht's son now.

))((

Time continued to pass. As Shuyin's blitzball skills improved, his reputation as a player continued to grow. But increased interest in the sport meant decreased interest in schoolwork. Shuyin struggled to level up in school, while his mother struggled to pay the bills. His energy continued to increase, but hers continued to decline. On her days off, Dannae was often so tired and gloomy that all she wanted to do was nap. She could no longer take her son on outings like they used to do with his father when he was young. But Shuyin was growing tall and strong in his own right now, and he was beginning to get a taste for independence. So, she reluctantly allowed him to go on his own outings, alone or with Koji. His favorite outings usually involved sun, surf, and fishing. He always looked forward to his beach trips, which gave him a break from the routine and a chance to try some other water sports for a change.

After one such outing, as the sun hovered low on the sea's horizon and orange streaks filtered through the blue sky, Shuyin returned home with his surfboard tucked under one arm and blitzball and fishing gear tucked under the other, as usual. But this outing was different, being the first of its kind to include girls other than Kaila and her friends. It had been a chance meeting, rather than anything planned, and they had tagged along with him and Koji as they returned to the docks.

"Wow, you live on a boat? That's so cool." The girl with the pink stripes in blond-dyed hair tightened the sarong about her hips and crossed over the small ramp from the pier to the houseboat deck. "Why didn't you just take the boat to the beach, so you wouldn't have to walk home?"

"Um, ... because I'm fourteen? Can't drive yet," Shuyin answered the obvious, as he set the surf board and fishing poles against the wall.

"You mean you have to _drive_ it?"

"Duuuh, Fresia." Behind him, Koji carried a large, insulated cooler. "How else is a boat like this supposed to get around?" His brown hair was rather longish now, curling slightly in thin wisps at the ends and near his eyes. He was growing taller than Shuyin and beginning to show more muscle definition than his childhood friend. He still wasn't able to do the trick shots that Shuyin managed to pull off, but he had also worked hard at his blitz skills over the years and remained one of his team's top players.

"Well, it has sails on it for one thing," Fresia tartly responded in her own defense. "I've never been on a houseboat before. How was I supposed to know it had an engine?"

"The propellers you just walked over might have been a good clue." Shuyin snickered at her ignorance on such matters.

"Like I would have looked for something like that if I've never been on one before." She pouted and smacked his back for making fun of her.

"Ouch-tch!" He winced at the unexpected sting - a sting that could mean only one thing. "Crap! I forgot the sun lotion. I knew there was something I forgot to take. Did I burn badly?" He reached an arm over his shoulder to touch the tender area that stung and felt the heat radiating off of his skin.

"Yep, you're a nice shade of pink." A second girl with short black hair pressed a finger into his shoulder blade and watched the white imprint turn pink again. "That's going to really hurt by tonight. You should have asked to borrow lotion from one of us."

"I don't usually burn, but I guess I stayed out a little longer than normal this time."

"Where do you want me to put this?" Koji asked as he balanced the cooler against his chest and started to open the front door.

"Wait, wait, wait! My mom's probably home from work. Let me see one of them." Shuyin grinned and reached into the chest to pull out a large fish that wriggled in protest at being out of the water. He put a finger to his lips to tell everyone to be quiet, then he carefully opened the door and peered inside. He could hear water running, so he crept through the living room and around the bar into the kitchen. His mother was at the sink rinsing a drink container when he inched his way close behind her and then thrust the large fish in front of her face. "_Tidaaa_!"

Dannae cried out and jumped with a start, dropping the container in the sink.

"I caught something for dinner." He grinned and lifted it in both hands to show it off. "Nice, big fish steak sound good?"

Looking at her son holding the big fish, Dannae laughed at her own fright, then held up a hand between herself and his present. "That's wonderful, Shu, but I really don't want the smelly thing in my face."

He chuckled at her reaction and placed it back in the container that Koji brought to his side. "We managed to catch three of them, though one's a little small."

"Three? They'll spoil before we can eat that many."

"Well, actually, … I was wondering if I could invite some friends over to help us eat them."

By the way he said it, Dannae knew that meant his company was already here. "Oh?" She looked at Koji, then turned and saw the two teenage girls in the very small bikinis standing in the doorway. "Oh … Oh my."


	4. Chapter 4: Sense of Adventure

Chapter 4: Sense of Adventure

"Can they stay?" Shuyin eagerly asked.

"Well, ... I suppose so." Dannae smiled at the girls her son had invited as dinner guests, but then drew near to him and lowered her voice to a discreet whisper. "Aren't they a little … _old_ … for you?"

He drew back in humored surprise at her incorrect assumption, but remained discreet. "Mom, they're in my classes at school." He shook his head at her obvious doubt and decided to introduce them. "This is Fresia and Gin. We ran into them at the beach, and since we had extra fish, I thought they might like to help us eat them."

"Gin?" His mother's brows rose with concern. "As in the drink?"

The girl with the wispy, black hair and bold green eyes laughed. "It's short for Giniva."

Shuyin grinned at them and took the fish chest from Koji, setting it beside the fridge. "Go ahead and set up the grill," he told his friend. "Do you remember where it is?"

"Top deck, right? In that footlocker?"

"That's it. I'll bring the fish out in a minute." Shuyin pulled a large knife from the drawer and tapped the handle on the counter. He was ready to play master chef. His mother, however, clamped a hand on top of his head to hold him still for a second. He was taller than she was now, but he obediently froze in place and waited with a sense of dread as she examined his ear.

"Is that an earring?"

"Kind of," he reluctantly answered.

"When did you get an earring?"

"Koji and I got our ears pierced down at the boardwalk today. There's a new jewelry store near the painted T-shirts ..."

Dannae's attention quickly shifted to Koji, who casually tugged at an ear as if trying to hide it. "This was your idea?" she asked the other boy.

"Ah, no, actually," Koji cautiously answered. "He wanted to get his tongue pierced, but I told him it would probably be better to start with an ear."

Shuyin frantically gestured for Koji to shut up, but immediately straightened as his mother turned back around to face him with a frown.

"What? How did you manage to get permanent body modifications done without parental consent forms?"

"They didn't ask our ages."

"But if they couldn't be bothered to check your ages, there's no telling what else they neglected. What if their equipment wasn't sanitary. Those ears could get infected. And on top of that you're red as lobsters from being out all day with no sunscreen. What were you thinking?" Dannae went to the sink and rinsed a dish cloth, then spread it over some frozen food containers in the freezer.

Shuyin winced as soon as he saw what she was doing. His mother had an effective, but unusual, method of treating sunburns. "They don't hurt … much."

"Oh, well, thank goodness for that, or you wouldn't be able to go back for the tattoos." Dannae shut the freezer door and folded her arms.

Koji snorted and laughed at the unexpected sarcasm in her response, but then cleared his throat as her attention shifted toward him again. "Yeah, I'll be, um, ... looking for the grill." He flashed Shuyin a peace sign before slipping back outside to the deck.

Shuyin remained upbeat in spite of the mild scolding and stepped around his mother to pull a fish from the cooler. "I promise I'll take the earring out if my ear gets infected, but right now it feels fine. So, once we have the grill set up, you're in for a real treat because Koji and I are taking care of dinner tonight," he proudly announced. "You could even lie down and take a nap while you wait, … or watch a movie, or something."

"That grill is probably rusted. We haven't used it in ages."

"Then we'll clean it off and place the fish on the skewers rack. Are you afraid to eat my cooking?" he asked with a teasing, sly expression.

"I'm more afraid of you setting the boat on fire when you light that grill."

Shuyin shrugged, undaunted. "We're on water. Where's your sense of adventure, Mom?"

Sighing with resignation, Dannae stepped aside to let her son prepare his fish, but decided to remain present in case damage control was needed. "You _are _an adventure, Shu - one right after another."

He set the large, flopping fish on the counter. But as he held it down to keep it from escaping, he couldn't remember whether he was supposed to cut it or scale it first. He was used to catching fish, not cooking them. His two female dinner guests came to his side.

"Aren't you supposed to kill it first?" Fresia asked.

"Do you need help?" Gin asked.

"I can handle it," he insisted as he contemplated how to outwit the slippery animal.

While he was preoccupied, his mother opened the freezer to retrieve the wet dish cloth, which had tiny ice crystals on it now.

Shuyin decided he should probably start with scaling it and tried to lift the fish's tail at an angle to the knife. Before he could begin, however, an ice-cold sensation hit his back and chills exploded over the rest of his body. His mother had pressed the frozen cloth between his shoulder blades to draw the heat from his sunburn. Sucking air through his teeth Shuyin dropped the knife and grasped the counter. The fish flopped onto the floor. "Shit!" He slapped a hand over his mouth as soon as he said it, hoping his mother didn't hear, but she was already frowning at his language. With no way to take it back once he'd said it, he banged a fist multiple little times on the counter to prevent himself from cursing further.

The two girls at his side almost fell over themselves laughing at his reaction to the surprise sunburn therapy.

Finally, burying his forehead into his arms on the counter, all he could do was groan in complaint until the chills faded.

Dannae removed the dish cloth after it had absorbed a good amount of heat from the burn and placed it back in the freezer to get ready for round two. "That's what you get for not using sun lotion." Then, she looked to the girls. "Jecht's best friend introduced us to this sunburn treatment. Works like a charm. As it removes the heat, it removes the pain and prevents blistering and peeling."

Shuyin exhaled with profound relief that it was over, but knew he would have to think up an excuse quickly if he was going to avoid a second application. "Yeah, a-ha-ha, very funny," he retorted to the girls who were still giggling at him. Picking up the fish, he rinsed it off before placing it back on the counter to try again. "Let's drop an iced rag over your backs and see how you like it." The fish was beginning to lose some of its vigor now, at least, so he positioned the chef's knife over its head to end its misery before another attempt to scale it.

))((

Dannae couldn't help but chuckle to herself at her son's ability to recover his dignity about it. So much like his father. She dare not tell him that, though. To Shuyin, Jecht was a forbidden topic of discussion ever since his disappearance. Dannae stepped away from the freezer to give the rag time to chill again, but paused feeling strange and cold. Her vision began to darken, and she knew she was about to faint. "Shu?"

Looking over his shoulder in time to see her swoon, he dropped the knife and fish a second time, but was quick enough to catch her and ease her down to the floor. "Are you okay?"

Fresia and Gin moved to stand behind Shuyin, concerned for the woman they'd just met.

"Should we call a white mage or a summoner?" Fresia suggested.

"No, … thank you. I'm fine," she answered, though sensation seemed distant.

"Are you sure?" Shuyin asked, worried.

"Just a little light-headed. I must have moved too fast." She stared up at him for a moment. From that angle, he looked so grown up now. After he helped her to stand once more, she moved toward the counter. "I'd better show you how to prepare that fish if we intend to have any of it for dinner tonight, hm?" She smiled and patted his hand, grateful he had been there for her.

))((

When the first fish was prepared for grilling, Shuyin and the girls took it back outside where Koji was just about finished scraping the rust out of the bottom of the grill. The girls sat down in the lounge chairs on the deck and began to chat with each other, and Shuyin set aside the fish to grab the charcoals and lighter fluid.

"Too bad one of us doesn't know a fire spell right now, eh?" Koji commented as he reached for the skewer rack.

"Or a cure spell." Shuyin poured some of the charcoal into the grill and set the bag aside.

Koji looked at his friend's somber tone and comment with a questioning expression as he set the skewers in place.

"My mom fainted just now," he answered under his breath. "I'm afraid something's wrong with her, but she refuses to go for an exam. That's the second time this month she's fainted."

"Maybe she's just tired. You said she was tired a lot lately."

"I guess so."

Changing to a more positive subject, Koji lowered his voice to a whisper and scratched a mosquito bite on his bronzed shoulder. "Hey, do you think we should walk the girls home after this?"

"Probably. I mean we did invite them over, and it'll be dark by the time we're done eating. We should at least take them back as far as the beach."

Koji grinned and elbowed his buddy. "Think they'll kiss us goodnight for the favor?"

Shuyin was equally amused at the thought. "Want me to ask? Hey, Gin!"

Koji quickly caught him in a head-lock and cupped a hand over his mouth before he could say or do anything embarrassing. "Don't you dare!" he threatened with a laugh as he released him.

Snickering to himself at how easy it was to call Koji's bluff, Shuyin began dousing the coals with lighter fluid.

Gin, however, had heard her name and came to his side in response. "You called?"

Sweeping the hair from his eyes, Shuyin chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, it's … nothing. I was just … wondering what kind of music you like. I could bring some music spheres out on the deck." He continued to soak the coals in lighter fluid.

"What have you got?" Fresia asked, joining them.

"I'll warn you. I like music most people have never heard of," Gin answered.

"Well, my collection's in my room if you want to browse." Giving the lighter fluid one more generous squeeze, he set the can aside, wiped his hands on the nearby towel Koji had been using, and headed for the cabin door again.

Both girls started to follow, but Gin grabbed Fresia's arm and whispered something in her ear. The girls giggled between themselves, and then Gin met him at the door. "I hope you don't get in trouble about the earring. I think it looks nice."

Shuyin waved it off with no big concern. "My mom doesn't get too bent out of shape over stuff like this, … as long as it's not too bad." He led the way down to the lower deck and back through the living room to his bedroom. "Some days I hardly see her at all because she works late hours, so she trusts me for the most part. I didn't think about trying to sue the pants off of the jewelry store if they damaged my ear. Guess it's a good thing I didn't do my tongue, huh?" On the wall beside his dresser was a rack full of music spheres. "Just look through these and let me know if you see anything you like." He reached for a couple of them to offer as samples.

"Oh, I definitely see something I like."

He paused with doubt. "You … haven't even listened to them yet."

Gin gave him a coy smile. "Shuyin, … do you have a girlfriend?"

He froze at the surprise question, but then cleared his throat and shrugged in attempt to remain casual about it. "Not at the moment."

"Have you ever kissed a girl before?"

"Once, ... yeah." There was no way he was going to admit it was just a peck on the cheek from Kaila when he was four. But since Gin was asking, Shuyin wondered if now would be a good time to upgrade that experience.

She looked up into his eyes and smiled, ... waiting.

Trying not to be nervous about it, Shuyin stepped closer and experimentally tilted his head to avoid bumping noses. Then, closing his eyes, he pressed forward until he bumped into her lips. His heart raced at the softness and warmth of the intimate contact, and he opened his mouth slightly to make it an official "date" style kiss, rather than just a friendly peck. When he drew back and opened his eyes, Gin was smiling back at him, pleased. _Yes!_ He had done it right first try! He felt like running up to the deck to tell Koji, so his friend could share his excitement with him. No, on second thought, he felt like doing it again. So, he did.

"Shu? Did you go back outside or are in here?" His mother called from the hall as she came to the doorway of his room.

Shuyin and Gin immediately jumped apart and tried to look natural, … which ended up looking very unnatural. His mother stared at him in confusion for a moment, and his face flushed with an expression that usually betrayed him when he was trying to hide something. Then she looked to Gin and was quietly mortified for a moment.

"The second fish is ready for the grill," Dannae calmly informed them. "I left a few thin slices for snacking if you want."

"Okay," he answered, a little too quickly, passing the music spheres to Gin. "Just, um, … take whatever you like," he told her with a playful grin.

"Excuse us for a moment," Dannae told Gin, snagging her son's arm. "He'll be back outside with the fish in a few minutes," she added as she escorted him to the kitchen.

"Ow, ow, ow-ch! Mom, I'm sunburnt!" he complained.

"Well, by all means, son, let's cool you down again." Dannae didn't release him until they were in front of the freezer. "_What_ were you doing in there?"

"Nothing." His voice cracked as he watched her retrieve and open the stiff, frozen cloth again.

"Don't lie to me."

"Okay, I kissed her. But that's it. I swear."

She turned him around and pressed the frozen compress against his back and shoulders. "Oh, _where_ is your father when I need him?" she lamented, putting a hand to her forehead as her son winced, clenched his teeth, and shuddered under the chills of her sunburn therapy. "I'm not ready for this, yet. This is too much adventure for one day, Shuyin."

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"No? Your lips accidentally fell on her?"

"I mean, I didn't invite her over because of that. I thought she just liked me as a friend, but I guess she _likes me_ likes me. She asked if I had a girlfriend, and it just sort of … happened."

"Well, nothing else had better happen!" She turned him back around to face her and pressed the heat-absorbing cloth against his chest and front of his shoulders. "New house rule. That door stays open if you're going to start inviting girls over. Understood?"

He made a disgruntled face. "Understood."

Shaking her head in dismay, she placed the 'melted' cloth back in the freezer for round three and planted the tray of sliced fish in his hands. "Take these to the grill. We'll talk about it more later."

"You don't mean … _talk_, do you? Dad had that talk with me when I was seven."

"Well, maybe you should have it again now that you're fourteen."

It was Shuyin's turn to be mortified. "But that's a _Dad_ talk; not a Mom talk."

"Well, I can't give you a father-son talk, so a mother-son talk will have to do. Unless, you'd rather I give you the mother-daughter talk?"

Shuyin's face pinched as he tried to think of some way to weasel out of the impending lecture.

"Just … go cook your fish, … before I decide to cook you." Flustered, his mother turned him around again to send him back outside before he could argue.

He winced at the sting on his shoulders, but he had to admit his back already felt better thanks to the frozen cloth therapy. Passing through the living room, he grumbled about not wanting to have _any_ kind of girl discussions with his mother, but then he remembered the reason behind it - the thrill of his first kiss. Shuyin allowed himself a congratulatory smirk. "Oh yeah. That was so worth it."

Gin was waiting for him when he returned to the deck. "You got in trouble again, didn't you?" she asked with a slight grimace of apology.

"Well, ... at least it wasn't because of the earring this time." He flashed her a guilty grin before approaching the grill and pinching the fish slices onto the skewers.

Gin returned the smile and activated one of the music spheres she'd brought back from his room. Then, she pulled Fresia aside to speak with her privately.

"I told Fresia we'd walk them home after dinner, and she seemed to like that idea," Koji said beside him, picking up one of the new slices and threading it onto a skewer.

"Good, good." Shuyin pilfered one of the slices of raw fish and dropped it into his mouth before glancing over his shoulder, certain that Gin was already telling Fresia what happened. He turned back to the task at hand and exhaled with a dramatic sigh. "Well, if we walk them back to the beach, maybe Gin will let me kiss her _again_ before we say goodnight."

Koji drew back with skeptical surprise. "You didn't … No, you didn't."

Grinning with pride, Shuyin grabbed the box of long match sticks. "Yes, I did. Twice!" He laughed and danced his little victory dance - the one he'd done since they were kids.

Koji was speechless for a few seconds, but tried not to appear too disappointed that Shuyin had beat him to another major achievement first, … as always. "So, … Gin, huh? How was it?"

"Freakin' awesome. It was like ..." Shuyin shook his head and tried to think of just the right words to describe it as he struck the match on the side of the box and cast it into grill, but flames_ whoofed _up into their faces the instant the match touched the well-oiled briquettes. Both boys had to shield themselves from the burst of heat and light, and Shuyin almost fell over a chair as he tried to back away.

"Oh my gosh! How much lighter fluid did you put in there?" Koji shouted.

Shuyin grabbed a nearby water bottle and squirted some of it into the flames. "Everyone was talking to me! I got distracted, alright? Help me tone it down before my mom sees it!" The water only seemed to make it snap and pop more.

Koji grabbed the lid and dropped it over the flames. Both boys coughed and tried to wave away the smoke that billowed into their eyes. Behind them, Gin and Fresia were laughing hysterically at the exploding grill. Shuyin checked under the lid to see if the flames had smothered and got another choking, face-full of smoke for his effort. When it was safe to remove it, Koji sighed with relief, but then promptly smacked the back of Shuyin's head. "Dumb ass," he retorted with a cough and grabbed the water bottle to take a drink from it.

Shuyin snickered at his friend's reprimand, but then the snicker turned into laughter. And Shuyin's laughter was contagious enough that it usually wasn't long before Koji was laughing along with him.

"That was classic!" Fresia congratulated him, still laughing as the girls came to their side of the deck. "Wait 'till everyone at school hears about it."

"Why don't you just pitch a whole can of kerosine in next time?" Koji added. "We could even throw in a few fireworks for flavor and call them 'Exploding Fish Kabobs'."

"Maybe asking your mom to cook the fish wasn't such a bad idea," Gin suggested with a laugh as she took his hands in hers.

Shuyin's chuckles calmed as he rubbed his smoke-stung eyes. "Are you kidding? She'd probably throw it in the freezer and then slap it between my shoulders instead of throwing it on the grill."

Gin giggled and then pouted sympathetically as she leaned forward to steal another kiss.

"Oh, please. Take it somewhere else." Koji squirted some of the water from the bottle into Shuyin's face.

"Hey!" Shuyin grabbed the water bottle and squirted it back at him.

Laughing, Koji dodged and ran across the deck to escape, ... until Shuyin cornered him and opened the bottle, emptying it over his head.

))((

The romance with Gin lasted only four weeks, but it was enough for Shuyin to discover a new vice and develop a new talent - the art of flirtation. He was thankful his mother forgot about her threat concerning their talk. She was thankful he gave up on getting his tongue pierced. Her attempts to raise her teenage son without her husband continued on, but there wasn't a moment that passed that she didn't wish he was there for him, ... for her. Shuyin grew stronger, but Dannae grew weaker, until eventually it became evident to everyone that her health was beginning to seriously decline.


	5. Chapter 5: Names and Dates

Chapter 5: Names and Dates

Dots ran across the screen of Shuyin's digital notebook, repeating without an end in sight, until a sharp poke in the ribs alerted him to lift his face from the keypad. As he realized he had fallen asleep, his classmates giggled, and his history teacher stared at him with waning patience.

"Answer the question, please, Shuyin," the teacher unhappily repeated, quite sure his errant student had not heard him the first time.

"Uh ... " Shuyin looked across the narrow aisle between his seat and Koji's for a clue on what that question - or at least the answer - might be.

Koji rested his elbow on his desk and nonchalantly covered his mouth with his hand. "High Summoner Yu Yevon," he whispered.

Shuyin sat up straighter, though he still felt rather spongy. "High Summoner Yu Yevon," he repeated. His voice had deepened by age sixteen, but his concentration on his lessons certainly had not.

The entire class fell to open laughter.

"And how did _she_ do it?" The teacher calmly pressed him to explain.

"_She_?" Shuyin frowned at Koji and reached across the aisle to pound a fist into his shoulder for purposefully feeding him the wrong answer. "What are you doing to me?"

Koji laughed with the rest of the class, proud of his trick. "I didn't do anything, man. You're the one that fell asleep."

The teacher repeated. "How did she do it, Shuyin?"

The class waited with baited breath to see what comedy the star athlete would produce next. On the spot, but at ease in the spotlight, Shuyin didn't disappoint. "Well, she ... did it like this." He put his pencil on his nose and balanced it perfectly. His classmates appreciated his humor, but his teacher was not amused.

"Koji, since you apparently have all the answers, would you please tell us the _correct_ answer for who first introduced alien life forms to the colony ship?" the teacher asked over the ripples of laughter.

The brunette blitzball player was still chuckling at how easy it had been to dupe his friend. "Captain Spira of the Founders from Earth."

"And could you please give us the _correct_ answer for explaining how she did it?"

"The ship's life support systems were failing when a guado named Mara answered her distress call and summoned the Farplane into the ship. Once the Farplane stabilized the life support systems, she went in search of life forms that would contribute to and survive better in the contained environment." Koji gave Shuyin a sly expression, enjoying being able to show him up for once.

Shuyin frowned at him again for feeding him a false answer.

Seated directly in front of Shuyin, Kaila raised her hand to make a correction. "It's Maedra, though, isn't it?"

"Yes, Kaila," the teacher agreed. "Maedra is considered to be the father of the guado on this colony, but we'll study more about them later. He's an interesting mystery."

Kaila looked over her shoulder and quirked a brow at Shuyin. "I don't know. Summoning the Farplane on a colony ship pales in comparison to High Summoner Yu Yevon balancing a pencil on his nose."

With a frown, the blond blitzball player hooked his feet in the basket under her chair and pushed down, pulling her seat back so that the front legs rose off of the ground.

"Shuyin! Don't you dare tip me over again!" Remembering he was wearing shorts that day, she reached behind her and pinched a small amount of golden hair on his leg to make him release her chair.

"Ouch!" He released Kaila's desk in an instant and swiveled in his seat to escape and evade her grabby hands, but gave her head a shove before scratching the stinging spot on his leg.

Of course, this little battle was just as entertaining to the rest of the students as the pencil on the nose trick, but then the chimes toned for the change of classes to take place.

Shuyin thought he had been saved from further hassle, but as Kaila left her seat, she attempted to smack his head in return for shoving hers. He ducked, so she mashed his face into his keypad instead. Then, she walked away laughing, happy to know she had the final word.

"Pick up your tests on the way out," the history teacher told the departing students, as he set a stack of papers on the corner desk near the door. Then, he came back to his 'problem child' and sat on the desktop across from him. "That's the third time you've fallen asleep in class this semester."

Shuyin's eyes watered from the bump his nose had taken against the keypad when Kaila pushed his head down. "I know, I know. But this is the class that I have after lunch, and I have to walk all the way here from -"

"I didn't ask for excuses. Anything that pours out of your mouth from this point forward will be nothing more than an excuse. Whatever went on before you got here, when this class starts you are responsible for paying attention. There's no nice way to say this, Shuyin." He passed his student a print-out of his last test. "You're failing history."

He grimaced at the large, red grade scrawled across the top of his test. "It's because I'm just no good at remembering names and dates. Besides, when am I ever going to need this stuff? I'm going to be a professional blitzer when I'm out of here."

"Right. Well, this is where I have to remind myself to watch my language with my reluctant learners, even when they deserve a good verbal thrashing because of their invincible attitudes. You may _want_ to play professional blitz when you get out of here, but there are no guarantees in life. You don't know that life isn't going to throw you an unexpected curve ball somewhere along the way. Nobody knows their future. Maybe - just maybe - you're going to need to know _other_ things someday. You can't ride your father's coattails in blitzball forever, you know."

Shuyin was insulted at the accusation. "I'm not riding anyone's coattails. My old man walked out on me and my mom when I was seven. What I've accomplished in blitzball, I've accomplished on my own without any help from him or anyone else."

"My point is that the more knowledge you have under your belt when you face this world's challenges, the better off you'll be. It's better to have it in case you need it, than to get caught with your pants down around your ankles and not know what to do. I see a lot of potential in you for great things, but I also see that you have poor study skills. So, I've set up a tutor to help you get back on track."

"What?" Shuyin was indignant. "I don't need a tutor. I'll stay awake in class, okay? Even if I have to chew my own leg off to do it." Shuyin finished packing his bag and shifted it to his shoulder.

"You will be studying with my student assistant _and_ staying awake in class. And I've reported your grades to the dean, your coach, and your other teachers, so there's no getting out of it, Sport. You're to meet with Birana at least three times a week until your grades show stable improvement." He gestured to the door where a bleach-blond in a pink mini-dress stood talking to Koji.

Shuyin's brows rose in surprise at the sight of the attractive girl. "Birana?"

"Birana has the highest grade point average for this class, so she's the logical choice to tutor you. However, I'll be checking in with her once a week to make sure you _are_ actually _studying._" He looked over the top frames of his glasses at Shuyin in subtle warning. "But if your grades don't improve with Birana's help, so help me, I'll slap you with the ugliest, geekiest boy I can find from the debate team, instead." The history teacher gave him a quirked brow, then patted Shuyin on the back and nodded to Birana and Koji as he left the room.

Shuyin cautiously closed his digital notebook and tucked his failed test into his history class folder. Okay, for a tutor she was extremely pretty, … but she was still a tutor. Tucking both items under his arm, he left his desk to join Koji and Birana in the doorway of the classroom. "Before you say anything," he told her, "I just want you to know I'm not stupid, all right?"

She was surprised by his confrontational greeting, but smiled instead of taking it personally. "I didn't say you were. You're on the blitzball team, right? I didn't realize you're the one I'd be tutoring. I thought your name was Tidus?"

"Shuyin's my real name, so I tend to prefer it, especially when I'm not in the sphere pool." He was still feeling wary about this deal and wanted to make sure he remained in control of his situation. "I'm only doing this tutorial thing because I have to - not because I have any choice in the matter."

"That's usually the case," she agreed, but remained pleasant in spite of his defensiveness.

"If I fail history, I probably won't be allowed to play blitzball anymore."

"That's probably true, too."

"And just so you know, I may be slow to get some things, but once I know them, I know them for good. So, don't get all intellectual on me, or anything. Just work with me at my own pace, okay?"

"That means you might have to use colorful pictures and do pole dances to make sure he stays awake," Koji inserted with a smirk.

Shuyin frowned at his friend's sarcasm. "Do I have a 'kick me' sign on my ass today, or something? Why is everyone coming down on me?"

"It was a joke, Shu. Geeze, lighten up." Koji shook his head and shifted the weight of his shoulder pack.

Birana gave Shuyin a reassuring smile. "However you want to do this is fine with me. I'm just here to help you keep your mind from wandering when you study, okay?"

Shuyin gave up the defensive stance and sighed in honest defeat. "You are _so_ not going to keep my mind from wandering."

She smirked at the compliment beneath his discouragement. "How about we meet at the library after school?"

"Nah, I got blitz practice after school."

"Okay then, after blitzball practice?"

He shrugged without enthusiasm. "Sure."

"Great. See you there." She smiled at both him and Koji before slipping past them into the classroom and heading to the teacher's desk.

Koji shook his head in dismay. "Unbelievable. You're failing history, but what kind of punishment do you get? You get one of the hottest girls on campus for a tutor. And, she didn't know my name or even that I was on the blitzball team, but she recognized you right away. That means she's been watching you. Do you have the luck of the gods or just some genie in a magic lamp that grants all your wishes?"

Shuyin tilted his head, appreciating the sway of her hips as she moved about her business at the front of the classroom, setting up her work space as teacher's assistant. But then he groaned and made himself turn away. "This is bad - very bad," he grumbled as he walked down the hall with his friend. "I am _not_ going to be able to keep my mind on history if I'm sitting next to a girl like that three times a week!" He stormed away, pissed at his good fortune.

))((

Birana waved to Shuyin as he came into the Zanarkand library and walked past the clear-paneled, digital indexes at the end of each row of spheres and books to the table where she was waiting for him. "You made it. How'd practice go?"

He touched his ear as if getting water out. "I'm still a bit water-logged, but I'm here." He sat down across from her, immediately slouching in his seat with disinterest. "Look, there's no sense in dragging this out like it's some kind of grand adventure. Just tell me which hoops I have to jump through to get my grades acceptable enough to stay in the game."

"Well, I guess the first thing we need to do is make sure you're understanding what you read. If you're misunderstanding the content you read, then everything else will be wrong, too. Have you started the chapter summary he assigned today?"

"I haven't finished it yet." He opened his digital notebook, and the clear cover darkened into a black screen, complete with digital "stickers". After a brief search for the file, he turned it toward her, and she leaned forward to read. He felt a little self-conscious having her check his work like this, so his fingers began to tap on the table, and his knee began to jiggle under it, unable to sit still as he waited in silence. While she was occupied with his homework, he took the opportunity to study her hair, her eyes, the curve of her mouth, the neckline of her shirt, the perfume he could smell from being so near ... Should he ask her out? No, he was here to study. But why shouldn't he ask her out? Because that wouldn't be studying. Maybe it could be a study date? "Yeah, right," he snorted to himself. Like he would actually study on a date.

She looked up from the notebook screen. "Hm?"

He shook his head and gestured for her to ignore his comment. "Nothing." Shuyin slouched a little more in his misery.

Her attention went back to his writing, but after a few seconds she smiled, amused at something.

His fingers stopped tapping on the table. "That bad?"

"Well, your sentences are a little ... funny."

"Funny?"

"It's the way you've worded things." She turned the screen toward him and proceeded to point out each correction he needed to make, but half-way through each explanation, he needed another explanation of what she was explaining.

Terms were beginning to overlap and confusion began to set in until Shuyin finally clutched his head in frustration. "Ahhhhh! I don't get this!"

A passing librarian frowned severely at him for the outburst and pressed a finger to her lips.

He dropped his elbows to the table, leaned forward, and purposefully hissed at a loud whisper instead of talking normally in a low voice. "Just tell me what I need to change, okay?"

"I'm here to help you think, not give you easy answers," she whispered, matching his position across the table. "You have lots of details in this report, but you haven't pulled them together so that they make chronological sense. That's probably the main reason you're failing. You're getting bogged down in the details and missing the main point. Concentrate on getting the big picture first. _Then_ learn the names and dates. Who and when doesn't matter as much as cause and effect when it comes to history. If we can't learn from the consequences of history, we are doomed to repeat it. Names and dates don't really matter when it comes to consequences."

He sighed with disgust at how together she seemed about it, considering how it felt like one big blur of boredom to him. But what she said did make better sense than anything he'd heard sitting in history class. "I guess that means I'm going to need a lot of help before my grades go up."

She laughed lightly at his defeated expression upon admitting that. "Yeah, probably."

He pursed his lips in brief contemplation. "Does that mean you'd be willing to spend ... extra hours with me?" he asked in a suave manner.

A slow smile of suspicion drew across her lips. "Are you asking me as a tutor, or as a date?"

He paused, annoyed that his attempt to flirt had been interrupted. "Which one will you answer 'yes' to?"

Birana was amused. "The tutor."

His expression fell. "Oh."

"But, if you bring your grades up, … I might consider the date," she added.

"Is that how you reward everyone you tutor?" he asked in a playful manner.

"Only the adorable ones," she answered, but then shook her head. "I can't believe I'm discussing this when we're supposed to be doing history. How in the world did you manage to get me on this topic?"

"By being adorable?" He chuckled with a cheesy grin. "I'm working hard at being adorable, yet you're making me _earn_ a date with you."

"Adorable guys are everywhere. I'm only interested in the ones with brains."

"That's cold."

She laughed lightly and pointed to his electronic notebook. "History, Shuyin!"

"Okay, already!" With a sigh, he sat up and set his elbows on the table to take another look at his work. "Told you my mind would wander."

"So, in general terms only, in your own words, tell me how life came to exist on Spira." She tried to refocus his attention.

He scratched his head. "Okay. Some guado that started with an 'M' ... Mara, Mela, Melonhead ..."

"You're not being very serious about this," she complained, trying not to laugh. "Try again. No details, just the main idea."

"Some stupid guado, _who shall remain nameless_," he emphatically corrected himself, "summoned the Farplane, ... so that things on the ship wouldn't die, ... and then they looked for more life on other worlds."

Birana smiled. "Why?"

He made a face as if the answer was obvious, but he remained unsure whether he was correct. "So, ... it wouldn't fail again?"

"Gold star." She approved. "That's what you need to say in your report. Rewrite it with that as your main idea, and _then_ we can worry about the details that back it up. Okay?" She moved to his side of the table to sit beside him.

He returned her smile. "Okay." Touching the delete key, he tried to think of a better way to start over.

))((

A few weeks later, after blitzball practice, Shuyin and Koji were walking down the hall toward the locker rooms when Koji grinned at Shuyin in a manner that was curious at best.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I heard that the Abes are going to be opening up a part-time slot for a junior member this summer," he reported. "I'm thinking about going up for it."

Shuyin quirked a brow. "You're a little young for the pros, aren't you? We've still got one year of school left."

"Yeah, but playing in the pros is all I ever wanted, you know? If I'm good enough for the big leagues now, why wait? And if I'm not good enough, at least I'll know so I can train extra hours next year and try again right after graduation."

"Shuyin!" Birana called from the other end of the hall and waved. "Are we still on for today?"

"Yeah! I just have to change first!" he called back in response, lifting the hem of his wet shirt to indicate the obvious reason for his delay.

"Oi, still studying with Bi-ra-na-na, na?" Koji mildly teased, quirking a brow of interest. "I've found out some things about her, you know. In some circles, they call her Birana the Piranha because they say she's a real man-eater."

"Is that supposed to entice me or scare me?"

"Play the game her way, or she'll chew you up and spit you out. And with good reason. Her dad _owns_ the Duggles, … but I'm sure you already knew that. Playing her for a spot on her dad's team when you graduate by any chance?"

Shuyin chuckled and pushed open the door to the locker room. "No, I didn't know that. So, no, I'm not playing her for any position with her father."

"Ah, I see. Then you're dating her to make the Abes sweat about possibly losing Jecht Jr., so they'll be more open to negotiations, eh?" he teased as he followed.

Shuyin paused and faced him. "I'm not dating her. I told you that. She refuses to go out with me unless I can get above a ninety on my history test. She says I'm a kinetic - no - kinesthetic learner? Something like that. It means I learn better when I can move and use my hands to do stuff, instead of just theorizing about it. She says that's the reason I'm better with things like blitzball compared to things like history. So, she told me to study names and dates while handling a ball or something - so my sense of touch could help me remember better." He was amused that she had logical explanations for everything he had made excuses for over the years. "Anyway, she's ... kinda nice, actually. Not stuck up or all brainiac like I thought she'd be, considering she's so smart."

"And it doesn't hurt that she's babe-a-licious, right?" Koji grinned and wriggled his brows as he pulled the elastic band from his tied back hair, letting the wet strands fall to his shoulders.

Shuyin shrugged and laughed as he headed to his locker and spun the combination lock to open it. "Well, there's that, too. I don't have a ninety yet, but I'm only five points shy, so I was thinking of asking her to the spring dance when I meet her today at the library. Maybe she'll make an exception about the actual score since this is a special one-time thing."

Koji peeled out of his damp, red, uniform shirt and side-tracked to a sink to wring it out, but then frowned slightly. "Uh-oh."

Shuyin reached for the towel in his locker. "What uh-oh?"

"Well, ... don't tell her I told you," Koji spoke as he flipped his damp shirt over his shoulder and returned to Shuyin's side, "but Kaila was going to ask if you'd take her to the spring dance. She didn't want to go dateless, so I kinda threw your name into the hat for her."

"What? Thanks for nothing, man."

"I felt bad for her, okay? But there is no way I'm going to the dance with my sister, so it has to be you." Koji faced his own locker beside Shuyin's and worked the combination before pulling it open.

"It can't be me. I was going to ask Birana. Besides, it'd be too weird. Dancing with Kaila would be like … dancing with a female version of you." Shuyin shrugged with a shudder.

"Dude, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Koji flatly responded. "Look, it's like you said - a one-time thing. You can always ask Birana out later, right? You've got her wrapped around your finger just like every other girl in this school, … unless she happens to find someone else before you manage to get that ninety." He grabbed a towel and his shower supplies.

Shuyin flipped his towel over his shoulder and reached for his shower supplies. "I'll manage," he answered with determination. "Oh, and I'm thinking of taking a surprise with me to the dance, too. I'll let you in on it later." He gave his buddy a light wink of mischief. Then, he started to head for the shower stalls when the team coach intercepted him.

"How's the tutoring going?" the stern man questioned.

"Seventy-five to eighty-five so far, Coach," Shuyin confidently reported.

"That's good. Because I just got word from your language arts teacher that your grade average has dipped below the line in that class, as well. It kills me to have to say this, but ... I'm going to have to bench you until you can get your overall grade average back up to eighty percent." He folded his clipboard to his chest.

Shuyin was stunned for a minute, then laughed lightly, as if the coach had been joking with him. "You can't bench me now. We're heading into finals."

"You're one of our better players, son, but I've already got a few teachers and the dean on my back about your grades needing more attention than your game."

"So, I need a tutor in language arts, too?"

"No, you just need to stop acting like the class clown," the coach frowned. "I've had reports that you sleep during lectures, turn in projects late, and are completely irrelevant during discussions. I don't know what's going on in your head when you pull that kind of nonsense, but you'd better get some action on those studies, or there's not going to be any action in the pool."

"But, my grades are improving."

"In history, maybe, but not in language arts."

Shuyin thought of what Birana had told him regarding how he learns. "But … those aren't physical subjects. I'm doing the best I can. You have to let me play, Coach. I was born to blitz. It's the only thing I can do well."

"You know, your father was the best player the sport ever knew."

Shuyin snorted in disgust and shook his head. "This again. Yeah, he was his number one fan."

"There is no guarantee you're going to play professional blitz when you get out of here just because your father did."

"Did you rip this out of my history teacher's book of lectures? I'm not trying to be like my dad. I'm sick of everyone thinking that!" Shuyin's volume unintentionally rose. "I'm trying to be me. Maybe I want to play blitzball because I just happen to like it and happen to be good at it. Maybe it has nothing to do with him!"

"You are one step away from being sent packing, Mister. I'd watch your tone, if I were you. Eighty percent or better in _all_ subjects, or you're off the team. In the meantime, Koji, you're to take his pool position." The coach lifted his clipboard and penned a note onto its electronic surface. Then, he touched the scroll through a few filed notes to make another.

"_What?_" Shuyin couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Koji drew closer to be sure he heard right. "_I'm_ up for right forward? But he's a stronger shooter than I am. I can't do his power shots."

"Maybe not, but counting average scores from ordinary shots at practice, you're the most consistent shooter on our team, Koji. Plus, you've got a real love of the game in you. Don't sell yourself short just because he has a legendary father. With that kind of heritage, he plays to impress people."

"I play to win," Shuyin angrily countered the shallow accusation.

"For _yourself_, or for your team?" The coach frowned sternly at his star player. "Did I also mention that Koji's got better grades?"

Shuyin cut Koji a sharp frown, but Koji only shrugged, unable to apologize for having better study habits.

"So, until I see improvements in grades, this is the final roster call. Tidus is on the bench, Koji takes right forward. Ekina comes off the bench to take right defense, and Nan moves up to center."

"Center?" Nan overheard the coach's conversation. "All right! You just made my day, Jecht Jr." He gripped the back of Shuyin's neck in excitement.

"_Shut up_," Shuyin snapped in response. Irritated that this new line-up excluded him, he headed for an empty shower stall and hung his towel on the door hook. Still dressed in his wet uniform, he turned on the shower head to rinse away all the itchy chlorine first. Jecht Jr. … Again … His father's legacy would never let him be. He had lost his key position - to his best friend, of all people. And just when he was feeling better about his grades, he found out that he's failing another class. Of course, he already knew he wasn't doing well, but he thought …

Removing his team shirt, he wrapped it around his hand and hit the wall, but that did nothing to ease his frustration. Palms flat against the tile, he stood with his head bowed beneath the steady spray, but the cool water did nothing to ease his hot temper. Shuyin sighed in disappointment and leaned against the wall he just hit. He couldn't face Birana at the library today - not in this mood, not like this - not with news that he was failing another class. He would have to figure out a way to tell his mother, too, and she didn't need one more worry about him - not in her condition. Maybe he just wouldn't tell her. Maybe Birana would agree to tutor him in Language Arts as well.

Shuyin made up his mind to cancel the library meeting today, but set up an evening library session later to discuss both subjects, … and maybe the dance as well. He would get his position back on the team. He had to.


	6. Chapter 6: Secrets

Chapter 6: Secrets

Dannae's fainting spells were becoming more frequent, and she wasn't eating much. She was suffering from depression, which was making her physically sick. Her son knew it, and everyone that knew her knew it, but she refused to acknowledge it or do anything about it. Her inability to keep up enough energy for both jobs led her to lose one, and she began to isolate herself more and more. As a result, money became even more tight than before and a definite sense of gloom began to settle over the houseboat's formerly energetic atmosphere.

Shuyin sat at the kitchen bar, eating an afternoon snack and studying as his mother stacked the dishes in the washer, when a glass dropped to the floor and shattered, drawing his attention out of his reading. His eyes were drawn to the woman's feet as she shifted her weight near to where the glass had dropped, but she continued with her task as if nothing had happened. He looked up to her with concern. Did she not hear it? Or did she just not care?

After a few minutes of waiting for her to respond, he finally could stand it no longer and moved to the pantry to grab the auto-vac. Touching a button on the little red appliance, he watched it whir right toward the mess on the floor and suck up the broken bits of glass, but he still had to dispose of the larger pieces it couldn't get. "Mom, let me finish. You go lie down." When she didn't seem to hear him, he touched her shoulders and turned her to face him. He was a whole head taller than her now. That and the fact that her body looked so thin made her seem ... fragile. "Mom," he repeated, waiting for her to make eye contact. "Go lie down."

She stared at her son vacantly, as if not knowing who he was for a moment. "Did you practice your keyboard lessons?"

"Um, ... yeah," he lied.

"You're a good boy, Shu." She gave him a sad smile and coughed. Then, she gave his arm a pat and turned away to go to her bedroom.

When she had left the kitchen, he turned around to check on the auto-vac. It was already vacuuming the entire kitchen, so he let it go and finished stacking the dishes. A knock on the front door of the boathouse interrupted his task, so he grabbed a towel to dry his hands and went to answer it.

Dressed in casual, tan shorts and a light rose-colored T-shirt, with her brown hair swept into her usual ponytail, Kaila smiled at him from the other side and gave a light wave. "Hi. Um, ... I was on my way to the library, and happened to be in the neighborhood, and I thought I'd stop over and say hi."

He sighed in disappointment, knowing why she had come, thanks to Koji's stupid idea suggesting him as a date for his sister. They had known each other since forever. He saw her every day for the past elven years in his classes at school. She had mostly been the tag-along or target of their jokes when he and Koji were together, but over the years she had learned how to fight back. She stood up for herself now, and he admired that, though he would never admit that to her. In spite of all the harassment they endured at each other's hands, there was a sense of responsibility toward one another in their little trio - like adopted family. He didn't know if he could live with the guilt if he turned her down. So much for getting a chance to ask Birana to the dance. "You never stop over for random visits. What do you want, Kaila?" he prompted.

"Well, … I have a favor to ask. Just a little one. Can I come in for a minute?"

Shuyin glanced over his shoulder. He had stopped inviting friends over as his mother's condition worsened, so he hesitated to let even Kaila into his home now, but his mother was on the lower level, so he shrugged and stepped aside to let her come in.

Kaila slid off her sandals and walked past him into the houseboat. Amused, she gave the towel on his shoulder a small tug. "Doing dishes?"

"Something like that." He led her into the kitchen so he could put the dish towel away and finish his snack.

She smirked. "Hm, I'm used to you being a lazy bum or a wrecking ball, but nothing in between. But you're actually being helpful now? That's something new."

"Nothing gets done around here if I don't help."

Kaila's smile faded as she read his mood. "Your mom still refuses to see a healer?"

"She refuses to go for even a diagnosis."

"Is she getting worse?"

He nodded, but didn't want to dwell on this topic. Looking for something to do rather than standing idle while he waited for her to pop the inevitable question, he pulled another handful of cookies from the counter jar and split the serving with her for all those years she had shared candies with him after swim lessons and blitzball games. Then, he went to the dryer to check for a recently done load of laundry.

"Thanks." Kaila ate one of the offerings as she watched him go about his chores.

He cursed under his breath seeing that his mother had started the load, but left it in the wash. "What did you want?" he repeated. "I have to go meet someone at the library in a few minutes." He started transferring the load to the dryer.

"Hey, we could walk together, then."

"Nh-no." He shook his head and reached for an excuse. "I have to finish my chores first."

"I can wait. Who are you meeting?"

Shuyin's shoulders slumped. He did not want Kaila hanging around while he was with Birana. "A tutor."

"Are you still making bad grades?"

"Well, if I was making good grades I wouldn't need a tutor, now would I?" he sarcastically countered.

"What subject? Let me guess - history. For a while there, every time I looked over my shoulder you were asleep."

Shuyin paused in transferring the clothes and tilted his chin at her unflattering observation. "What are you doing looking over your shoulder at me when you were supposed to be listening to the lecture?"

She ignored his retort. "You know, I'd have been willing to help you study for tests and stuff if I knew you were doing that badly. But you're too proud to ask for help."

He was irritated that his grades were such an issue these days. "Ask your favor, Kaila," he prompted her again to get to the point.

She rolled her eyes at his typical shift in subject when not wanting to admit defeat at anything. "Okay, well, it's about the spring dance." She quieted for a insecure moment and brushed the flour dust from her cookies. "I was kind of hoping that this really great guy that I like a lot would ask me to go with him, but ... it doesn't look like he's going to." Disappointed, she crossed the kitchen to stand near the sink.

Koji hadn't mentioned that was part of the equation. For all his popularity with girls at school, Shuyin now knew what it felt like to have his heart set on someone beyond his grasp because that's how he felt around Birana. But as he considered this element in Kaila's dilemma, his eyes went to her bare feet. She was standing right where the glass had broken a few minutes earlier. He left the dryer and crouched to inspect the floor near her, just in case he had missed something.

Kaila backed away a step. "What are you doing? You're not … looking at my legs, are you?" she asked with doubt.

He looked up, mildly annoyed that she would assume the worst about him. "I just cleaned up some broken glass there. I didn't want you to cut your foot if the vac missed a piece."

She looked over her shoulder to the auto-vac that was bumping around on the other side of the room. "Oh." She supposed she was grateful for his concern. Nervously fidgeting with the cookies, she bit into another one.

He returned to the dryer, dumped the last of the wash load into it, and turned on the appliance.

"Anyway," she continued, "I know it's kind of last minute, but ... Koji suggested that I ask you to go with me."

With a sigh of resignation, he leaned against the dryer and folded his arms. "Okay, sure."

Kaila blinked in surprise at his acceptance. "Are you sure?"

"I said okay, didn't I?"

Her brows knit in suspicion. "No argument? No mockery? No jokes about how I couldn't get a date on my own? That was too easy, Shuyin."

"You want me to say 'no'?"

"Koji already told you I was going to ask, didn't he?"

He hesitated a second too long in providing the answer.

"I knew it!" She threw her fists up in anger. "I'm going to kill him! You knew this whole time and didn't say anything!"

"Look, it doesn't matter whether he told me or you asked, okay? I'll do it." He moved to the table to collect his digital notebook and study spheres.

"Yes, it does matter! I don't want you to do it just because he talked you into it."

"You'd rather me do it because you talked me into it?"

"Yes!"

"What's the difference?" Shuyin complained about her logic.

"If he talks you into it, then you're doing it for him! If I talk you into it, then you're doing it for me!"

"Kaila, do you want to go to the dance with me, or not?" he demanded a straight answer.

"Yes!"

"Fine."

"Fine!" Kaila stormed out of the kitchen and back through the living room to get her sandals and left without saying goodbye.

Shuyin popped the last cookie into his mouth and glared at the door. Something significant had just happened here, he just wasn't sure what.

))((

The night of the dance, Shuyin answered the front door to find Kaila standing before him again. This time, however, her hair was swirled into a pretty flare with a few loose, brown curls that hung around her face, and she was wearing a strapless, plum-colored dress and silver heels. He had expected some kind of glamorous caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation that girls go through for these things, considering it was a semi-formal event. He just wasn't expecting the transformation to look so … familiar. Kaila was Kaila.

"Well? Aren't you going to invite me in?" She seemed uncertain what to think of his greeting - or lack thereof.

Shuyin obediently moved out of her way. "Where's Koji?" He looked past her to the deck, but she had apparently come alone.

"He went to pick up his date - said he'd meet us at the dance." She removed her heels and hooked the straps on her fingers before entering the houseboat. "Is that what you're wearing?"

Frowning slightly at her tone of disapproval, he looked down at his dark blue pants. "What's wrong with this?"

"Depends on whether shoes and a shirt will eventually be part of the game plan?" She indicated his bare feet and chest.

"No, I thought it was a come as you are event," he retorted as he shut the door. "I'm not ready yet because you're an hour early. Also, I thought I was meeting you and Koji at your place, rather than you coming here." He walked back to his bedroom to finish getting ready.

Kaila followed out of habit. "Well, that's what I thought, too, but then Koji said he wanted to pick up his date early, and I was dressed early, but I didn't feel like sitting there watching the clock by myself."

"Did he say who he was taking?" He went to his closet to browse shirt options.

"No, and I didn't ask. I get the impression it was a last minute decision." She glanced around his messy room and set her silver heels at the foot of his bed. "How is it possible for this room to look exactly the same every time I come here?"

"I do clean it between your periodic inspections, if that's what you're asking." Shuyin pulled a blizball uniform shirt from the closet and held it up for her approval as a joke suggestion.

Kaila was humored. "You're supposed to try to match my dress, you know. Should I have worn Koji's blitzball uniform instead?"

"Are you serious?" He made a face and put the uniform shirt back. "What kind of stupid rule is that? I don't have any shirts that color of purple."

She found a dubious comic half-hidden under his electronic notebook and papers and began flipping through it without expression. "I didn't know about it either until Mom said something about traditions with formal events. I'm not concerned about it. Just pick something you like. I'm sure whatever you choose will look nice on you, Shuyin."

He pulled another shirt from his closet, but then saw what she was looking at and jumped to her side with one large hop to snatch the comic out of her hands. "Stop going through my homework."

Kaila chuckled at the outrageous claim and quick action. "That is _not_ homework. You know, I can remember when candy was the only thing a girl needed to get your attention."

He dropped the comic into a dresser drawer to keep it away from her. "My homework was on top of it. You know, the homework you mashed my face into?"

Amused that he would bring that up, Kaila shoved his other homework items out of her way so she could sit down on the edge of the bed. "You deserved that, and you know it - tipping my desk over like that."

"I was minding my own business, sleeping in class - sweet and innocent." He removed the chosen shirt from the hanger.

"Wow. That kind of lie is just _asking_ for lightning to strike, isn't it. However, … you do seem a little nicer when Koji's not around."

"Well, maybe if someone still gave me candy, instead of mashing my face into my desk, I'd be nice all the time." He stood before her to compare the shirt to her skirt, but he remained skeptical.

"Oh, so, it's _my_ fault you're a delinquent because I classically conditioned you, but then stopped bringing the candy?"

"This isn't going to turn into a pop quiz from psychology class, is it? I'm having enough trouble with history and language arts."

Kaila stood and took the garment, opening it to hold at his shoulders. The black, long-sleeved t-shirt with dark blue and dark purple designs coordinated perfectly between his pants and her dress. She smiled, but shook her head in dismay. "I told you not to worry about it, but you did it anyway," she quietly muttered.

"I know it's just a t-shirt, but I might be able to dress it up with accessories."

She lowered the shirt and stared at him with an uncertain sigh.

"Or … not." He mirrored her uncertainty. "If you don't like that one, maybe you should pick the shirt," he suggested, gesturing to the open closet.

"No, this is fine. It's just … You didn't have to." Kaila exhaled in a huff. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

Shuyin was confused and cautious. "Are we still talking about the shirt?"

"Koji put you up to this, and this whole event is a couple's thing, but … we're not a couple."

"I didn't think we had to be. It's just for a few dances."

"It would still be kind of awkward for us, wouldn't it? The slow dances, between the dances, after the dance … I mean, it's not like I'm the type of girl you would normally be interested in. And I'm not the type to hang all over a guy just for the sake of having someone to latch onto." She looked down somewhat embarrassed to even be discussing this.

"Yeah. Well, … to be honest, I hadn't really thought about all the … hanging," he told her, thinking that might ease her anxieties.

"Good." Kaila nodded in acceptance, somewhat relieved. "I guess that's the benefit of going with my brother's best friend," she lightly joked. "I mean, we'll probably end up fighting before the night is over, anyway, right?"

Shuyin thought she seemed a little disappointed to be stuck with him for a predictable night of traded insults and grappling squabbles. He didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted. After all, _she's_ the one that had invited _him_ to this thing. Shuyin took a good look at Kaila. He had always thought she was kind of pretty, even in her shorts and t-shirts. Maybe that's why he wasn't shocked to see her dress with a touch of elegance. She didn't need it. And he liked that he had always been able to be himself around her, rather than having to impress her with trick shots or high grades. Of course, that also meant she had endured his relentless teasing over the years, yet here she was, … still talking to him. She never accused him of trying to be like his father. She understood his worry and fear concerning his mother. It had been a simple matter to pick out a matching shirt, yet she was behaving as if he'd made some of kind heroic sacrifice. Or, … maybe he was behaving as if taking her to the dance was some kind of heroic sacrifice. Was it really so bad as that? "Kaila?"

She still seemed troubled at the thought of going through with this "date".

"Don't hit me, okay?"

She quirked a brow in suspicion at the odd, cautionary warning.

Leaning forward, he pressed a light kiss to her lips - soft, simple, … sincere. Then, he drew back with a slight wince, fully expecting to be smacked for it.

Kaila's face flushed a rosy shade of pink, but she said nothing as she cleared her throat and smoothed the wrinkles from her dress.

It was the weirdest reaction he'd ever experienced after kissing a girl, and it left him more than a little insecure. "Well?" he impatiently prompted.

"Well, what?" She seemed a bit flustered for words. "Were you expecting a rating for that?"

"I thought you might … fuss at me, or … something."

Kaila stopped smoothing her skirt, but kept her gaze down at the shirt in her hands. "If I fuss, you might not do it again."

He wasn't sure. Was that good?

She lifted her chin to meet his eyes.

"Again?"

She swallowed and nodded, but tried not to appear too eager.

A slow smile touched his lips at her reluctant approval. They did have a _few_ minutes before they had to leave for the dance. Gesturing for her to stay put for a second, he went to the hall and looked toward the stairs leading down to the lower cabin where his mother was probably napping. He knew it was against the house rules, but his mother didn't seem to notice him so much anymore, so Shuyin closed and locked his door to prevent another surprise entry.

"Just don't tell Koji, okay?" he suggested, feeling somewhat anxious as he returned to Kaila. "He'd never let us live it down."

Kaila smiled and nodded in agreement. For once, she was Shuyin's partner in mischief, instead of her brother. "Our secret."

Standing before her, Shuyin slipped a hand behind Kaila's neck and dared to kiss her again. He could feel her shoulders and neck stiffen beneath his touch, so he figured this must have felt as strange for her as it did for him. But it was a nice kind of strange. And as the kiss lingered, she relaxed and slid her hands up his back to pull him closer.

))((

Dannae surfaced from her own bedroom to get a drink from the kitchen only moments after Shuyin shut his door. She paused passing by his room after distinctly hearing a girl's voice in low-level bits of conversation. Frowning at her son's blatant disrespect for her rules, she started to reach for the handle, but then heard him laugh and say a name. _Kaila?_

Her mind had been erratic and distant lately, but she was immediately able to recall the little girl Shuyin had grown up with. Kaila … She withdrew her hand, and though it was hard to walk away and trust him, she returned to the solitude of her own room.

Sitting down on her bed and setting her empty glass aside, Dannae coughed and lifted a holograph from her nightstand. It was a picture of three children playing together in the waves on a beach trip - a memento of happier times. She set that holograph down and chose another. This one was of herself and Jecht, right after they were married. Whatever happened to those happier times?

"Your son is almost grown now," she told the man in the holograph. "He is so much like you." She touched the picture as if caressing his face. She still missed Jecht. She would never stop missing him.

"He has chosen Kaila. Remember her? He certainly could do much worse - and believe me, he has." She smiled in small humor and chuckled. "But Shuyin needs someone like her - someone who can temper his pride with humility, ... balance his impulses with rational thought, ... calm his chaos so that he can find peace. He needs … someone who can appreciate the depth of his devotion, and offer him unconditional love when he makes mistakes. I fear … he is not done making mistakes."

She coughed lightly, then hugged the frame to her chest as she slowly rocked back and forth with it. "But there is nothing more I can do for him, Jecht. I have become … a burden to him now. He will never move beyond this boat if he feels he must continue taking care of me."

It hurt to think of the past, while trapped in the present. It was frightening to think of the future. So, she escaped time completely by withdrawing from it. Her eyes became glazed to stop the tears. Her arms clutched the holograph, but felt numb to it. Her heart was aching, so she chose to forget again.


	7. Chapter 7: Broken Hearts

Chapter 7: Broken Hearts

It was only thirty minutes later when Shuyin threw open the door to his bedroom and ran down the hall to answer the banging on the front door that he almost didn't hear. As he ran, he finished pulling his shirt on over his head and shoulders, and, still barefoot, he scrambled straight over the back of the sofa, instead of going around it. He had no time for visitors, since he and Kaila needed to be leaving for the dance, but he didn't want or expect his mother to respond to company, either. So, he was prepared to shoo away whoever it was, until he opened the front door and discovered it was Koji.

"Ready to go?" Koji was dressed in pants covered with lots of buckles and zippers that seemed to serve some kind of important purpose, but actually didn't. His shirt was simple and white, but his long black jacket with white accents pulled the otherwise casual ensemble together in a cool, sophisticated manner. He took in Shuyin's bare feet, rumpled shirt, and spry hair with amused doubt. "Hm, I guess not. Don't tell me you just woke up. Kaila was dressed and ready to go before I even left the house. Don't be late picking her up, or she might transform into a fiend and beat you with a big, ugly stick."

"I was ... getting dressed." Shuyin tried to avoid looking guilty as he pulled the waist of his shirt down and glanced toward his bedroom. Hopefully, Kaila could hear Koji's voice and had the sense to remain out of sight until he left. "I thought we were supposed to meet at the dance."

"Yeah, about that …" Koji shoved his hands in his pockets and invited himself into the living room. "I went to pick up my date early, and we spent a little time at her place. Then I remembered you saying you had a little surprise you were going to bring with you to the dance. I have a little surprise I'm bringing, too, so I thought maybe we should discuss our surprises here, … so they don't_ actually_ surprise us there." He hoped that made sense.

"Okay, sure." Shyuin shrugged and scratched the back of his head, then attempted to smooth his hair back into place. "Where's your date?"

"Waiting at the dock. I told her this wouldn't take long. So, … you first," Koji prompted with a hint of anticipation.

Shuyin grinned. "Wait right there." He closed the front door, jogged to the kitchen, and returned holding up a little jug. Then, he gave the jug a shake to indicate the liquid within it. "Surprise."

Koji chuckled. "What is that?"

"My mom was going through a lot of my old man's stuff - his old sword, memory spheres, blitz uniforms, etc. I was helping her pull out boxes, and I found his hidden stash of nog."

"And what if we get caught drinking that?"

"Oh, it's not for us. However, I always wondered what the teachers would be like if they were really, _really_ happy. Know what I mean?"

Koji laughed at the prank. "You are one warped individual, man."

"Why, thank you." Shuyin accepted the compliment with a cheesy grin. "Anyway, your turn. What's your surprise?"

"Well, … remember how Birana said she's not going to date you until you make the grade?"

"You talked her into coming anyway?" Shuyin's face lit up and he started toward the door to see if she was the surprise waiting outside, but then he realized the complications that could come of that now and gave his head an emphatic shake. "Wait! No! Very bad idea!" He lowered his voice. "I've already agreed to go with Kaila."

"Well, see, here's the thing. Since you already agreed to go with Kaila, and since Birana is your tutor, not your girlfriend, I just thought maybe …"

Shuyin could guess where this was heading, and he was _not_ humored by it. "You asked Birana to the dance as _your_ date?"

"Well, considering current circumstances, why not?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you knew how I felt about her?" Shuyin caustically answered, folding his arms.

Koji frowned. "See, I knew you would take it this way, but this actually has nothing to do with your feelings. That's why I wanted to stop by and explain it before we got to the dance."

Shuyin winced in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

Koji sighed. "Look, Birana refuses to date you right now, but it's not because she doesn't like you. She practically told me as much when I asked. I'm sure that when you drop that ninety on her desk, she'll never speak to me again. This is just a one-time thing for one night."

"But -"

"By going to her place to pick her up, I was able to talk to her dad about possible openings in the Duggles line-up in the next couple of years. If my plan to try out for the Abes falls through, it might be good to get my name out there with another team."

The locker room conversation came back to him now. He understood where Koji was coming from with this scheme now, but he still didn't like it. "Does she know you're using her like that?"

"Does it matter? She's not interested in me. She's holding out for you. It's like how you agreed to go with Kaila since you couldn't go with Birana."

Shuyin's brows dipped in anger, and he stepped closer, getting in Koji's face. "Did you throw Kaila at me to keep me away from Birana?"

"Kaila threw herself at you. I did her a favor by convincing her to do something she always wanted to do, … and convincing you to agree to it."

"_What?_"

"I know you said she looked like a female version of me, but if you can put up with Kaila for one night and pass your next test, you'll get Birana anyway when all is said and done."

"_Put up _with me?" Kaila came into the living room, unable to believe what she just heard.

Koji and Shuyin both jumped at her unexpected entry into their conversation. "Geeze, Kaila! Warn someone when you're eavesdropping," Koji complained, clutching his heart.

Kaila moved past her brother to stand before Shuyin. "Is that true? Are you putting up with me because you can't go with the girl that you like?"

Shuyin found himself at a loss for words. He'd had seen Kaila get irritated at his teasing hundreds of times in the past, but he had never seen this kind of wounded expression on her face before.

"Do you really think of me as nothing but a female version of Koji?" She searched Shuyin's face for an honest answer.

"That was before … you know." He paused to avoid spilling their secret in front of Koji and tried to think of something a little more cryptic. "Before … I saw you in that dress."

"So, as long as I dress in something short and tight, I'm worthy of your attention - like that comic full of eye-candy. Otherwise, I look like a female version of my brother?"

"I never said that. That's not what I meant. You're like a sister to me. I don't mind taking you to the dance at all."

She stiffened as those three fatal words spilled from his mouth - _like a sister_. "You don't _mind_?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Frustrated, Shuyin ran a hand over his head and began to pace. "I'm not good with words, Kaila. Just -"

"I have always liked you, Shuyin," she bravely confessed. "I liked you from the first time we met at the pool through all those awful pranks you both played on me when we were kids. I sat in those stands at every one of your games and cheered my heart out for you. You want to know why I was watching you sleep in history class? It's because I was worried about you. Okay, maybe picking on you wasn't the smartest way to go about telling you, but that's what we've always done around each other, so it's all I know. I was afraid you agreed to go with me tonight out of pity, but when you kissed me the way that you did just now ... You have no idea how much that meant to me. Why would you kiss me like that if you like someone else?"

Koji cut a side-glance toward Shuyin. "You _kissed_ her?"

"That really great guy I was hoping would ask me to the dance? That was _you_." Kaila's mood began to shift from hurt to angry, and her mascara began to smudge as she blinked back tears. "But if all you care about is how many girls you can add to your collection, then I'm done wasting my time on you." She wiped at the tear that ran down her cheek, but remained strong in speaking her mind. "You broke my heart, Shuyin. I just want you to know that. But don't worry. You won't have to put up with me anymore." Drawing a ragged breath to fight further tears from ruining her resolve, she ran back to his bedroom to get her shoes.

"Kaila, wait!" Shuyin went after her and tried to block her exit when she turned around. "Let me explain."

"I don't want to hear it!" She marched past him back into the living room. "And you!" She angrily turned on her brother. "You convinced me to ask him to the dance, just so you could get him out of your way for that other girl. You used both of us! Don't even talk to me anymore!" Kaila stormed to the front door and slammed it shut behind her.

Koji immediately confronted Shuyin. "Why didn't you tell me Kaila was here?"

Shuyin frowned in response to the demand. "Because it was none of your business." He padded past him to set his dad's drink on the end table. "Looks like the only thing I'm taking to the dance now is the nog, thanks to you."

"I know you better than anyone, Shuyin, so I'm making it my business. Kaila isn't one of your legions of groupies. She's my sister. I didn't set her up with you so you could take advantage of her."

"Are you accusing me of using Kaila, when you admit setting her up as a distraction?"

"I didn't mean for you to _kiss_ her. You knew she'd interpret that to mean you actually _like_ her."

"I do like her!"

"That's not what you said in the locker room when I suggested you take her to the dance."

"I didn't know she liked me when I said that. And you twisted my words!"

"Oh come on! It's obvious to everyone _but you_ that she likes you. But does this mean that you _don't_ like Birana now? It doesn't sound like it, since you're angry at me for asking her out. You can't have it both ways - not with Kaila. And as for Birana, you would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes. You're just pissed because I beat you to it for once."

"Now, see, that's where you're wrong. I would never stoop so low as to go behind your back with a girl that I _knew_ you liked! If I _knew _that you liked her, I'd back off! Because you're my best friend, and that's what best friends do!" Shuyin and Koji glared at each other for a moment as both of them tried to find stable ground before this argument got any more out of hand.

Finally, Koji sighed and turned away to rethink his perspective. "Okay, ... maybe it's partly my fault because I don't speak up enough when I like something - like that time you hooked up with Gin before I even got the chance to talk to her."

This was news to Shuyin. "You liked Gin? Why didn't you say something?"

"Because Gin picked you. It's always been like that. Whatever I want, you get it first - whether it's girls, or team positions, or whatever. You hate having a legendary father? Try having a legendary best friend. People like your charismatic crap, even when you screw up. The teachers, the coach, the girls, my own sister - even I fall for it now and then. Well, no more second place for me. From now on, if I want the strawberry candy, I'm taking it. That's why I decided to take my chances with Birana while I could. Because you'll get the girl in the end, Shu. You always do."

Shuyin was stunned to hear that his friend resented him so much for so long. "We've always been a little competitive with one another, but I have _never _set out to sabotage you on purpose, Koji. In fact, you've got my team position right now."

"But I only got it because you were benched."

"You got it because you deserved it. Didn't you hear what the coach said? Most consistent shooter on the team."

"It doesn't matter! Who wants ordinary consistency when they can see spectacular sphere shots? You're a risk, Shu, but it's a risk they're willing to take because most of the time you nail it. When you do, the crowd goes nuts and the other team cowers in their shoes. No matter how many times I score, they're going to be asking what happened to you. That's why Birana called you by name, but didn't even know I was on the team. And yet you're upset with me for trying to win the slightest recognition with her father on _one_ date with a girl you're not even dating?"

"I'm upset because you stabbed me in the back to do it!"

"What was I supposed to do? Ask Birana to put in a good word for me with her dad? _She didn't even know my name._ And do you realize how many other nameless rookies probably hound him to get noticed? I am sick of being the shadow in Jecht Jr.'s spotlight!"

"Then just ... take Birana and go!" Shuyin waved off the discussion in disgust. "I'll spare you the spotlight tonight by staying home."

Koji was angry at himself for feeling angry about this, but couldn't apologize for how he felt. He didn't try to talk Shuyin into changing his mind. Instead, he headed for the front door without saying good-bye. But when he opened it, a very unhappy-looking Birana stood on the other side. Koji sighed and tried to smile in a pleasant manner, but it was strained. "I'm … sorry this took longer than I thought it would. We can go now."

"No," she answered in a plain manner. She was so matter-of-fact about it that Koji blinked as if he'd just run into a brick wall. "I just met your sister - hard to ignore a crying, barefoot girl fleeing the scene. She was too upset to say much, but when I stopped her, she asked if I was the girl Shuyin was interested in that her brother was taking to the dance. She said she wasn't going with Shuyin to the dance anymore, so I could have him. I can guess the rest of what happened based on what I heard through the door just now. I didn't know this was where Shuyin lived, … and you didn't tell me. Why is that, Koji? Didn't want me to see him?"

"I was going to talk to you after I talked to him."

"You're not the first jock to try to win my dad's favor by winning me, but I'm not a blitzball to be thrown into a net for a score. If you wish to speak with my dad about his game, make an appointment with him like everyone else." She looked past him to Shuyin, who was equally surprised to see her at the door, even though he knew she had been waiting outside. "And here I thought _you_ might actually be interested in me for who I was, rather than using me to get to my father."

Shuyin gave a defeated sigh. "I'm not the one who used you, Birana."

"No? Koji told me you were going to the dance with someone else. That's the only reason I agreed to go with him. And now your date is heading home in tears because, apparently, you didn't tell her about me, … just like you didn't tell _me_ about _her_."

"There was nothing to tell! I'm not good enough for you yet, remember?"

"No, I guess you're not. But I had hoped those weren't empty lines you were feeding me all that time I was helping you study." Birana gave him, and then Koji, a cold, accusatory glare and walked away without another word.

As soon as she was off the boat deck, Koji threw out his hands in a gesture of disgust. "Happy? Now neither of us have dates."

Shuyin was livid. "You told her I was going with Kaila so she would stay away from me?"

"Did you not hear what she said? She wouldn't have gone out with me otherwise! It's all about you, Shuyin! It always is!" Koji stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him - an angry echo of his sister's emotional exit.

With all the yelling and door slamming, Dannae was drawn from the solitude in her bedroom into the living room and see what was going on. "Is everything alright?" she asked her son.

Shuyin stared unhappily at the door. "Everything's fine, mom." He lifted the jug of nog from the end table and went past her to his room. "Just one adventure right after another," he muttered to himself.

Shutting the door, he popped the cork and took a swig of the strong drink, making himself choke it down as it burned through his throat into his chest and nearly knocked him off of his feet. In a short while, he had become quite numb. But just when he was beginning to understand the appeal of his dad's drinking habits, he also began to feel quite sick.

He finished off what was left of his dad's nog all by himself that night. And after much puking, he dragged himself to bed to sleep it off.

))((

The next morning, Shuyin woke feeling as if his tongue was made of leather and his head had a machina army marching through it. Moaning at his irrevocable discomfort, he lifted his head and looked at his alarm clock. It was past noon. Wasn't there something he had to do today? Game ...

"Game!" He sat up in bed and threw off the covers, but then immediately groaned again and grabbed his head. Standing slowly, he stumbled to his drawers to look for a clean uniform. No shorts were available, but he remembered the shirt hanging in his closet from when Kaila was over. The rest of his uniform was probably still in the dryer.

The thought of trying to play blitzball in this condition almost made him sick all over again. Then, he remembered he wouldn't be playing today. He'd been benched. He still had to show up in uniform on game day, though. Those were the rules if he wanted to remain a team member. At his touch, the memo pad on the wall lit up the calendar display for the day. His game was in two hours. Maybe that would be enough time to settle his stomach and feel better.

Shuyin padded into the kitchen to butter some bread and pop it into the range. He had selected the toast option and poured some juice to try to rinse the awful fuzz from his tongue, when the com link in the living room chirped with an incoming message. Shuyin left his toast to touch the receive button.

On the screen, Koji chuckled lightly at Shuyin's morning expression and messy bed-hair. "You look rough, man - _really rough_."

"What do you want?" Shuyin groused, still in a foul mood from the night before.

Koji's attempt at humor faded, and he drew a somber breath before saying more. "Listen, I ... didn't mean to blame you for my failures like that. I just wanted you to understand why I did what I did concerning Birana - one night out, no strings attached. I set it up so that I would take the blame if she got mad. If I had intended to stab you in the back, I would have shown up at the dance with your girl and let the pieces fall where they may, instead of wanting to talk to you about it. I never meant for it to turn out this way."

Shuyin grew quiet for his friend's confession and apology, but when he considered the reality of his own tattered life, he honestly questioned how anyone could envy it. Finally, he sighed and scratched the back of his head. "You're not a failure, Koji. School is easy for you. You're one of the best shooters on the team. You've got good sense - better sense than me most days. And you've got a great family. You've never had to put up with the kind of crap I go through around here. If not for blitzball, friends, and girls … what would I be? Those things are my escape, man. I thought you knew that after all these years."

"Are we okay, then?"

Shuyin realized that what Koji's resentments had built up over a long time. Stuff like that didn't go away overnight. He had no idea his friend felt that jealous about all the attention he got, but now that he knew about it, how could he ignore it? "I guess so."

Koji nodded, tense but relieved. "Did you go out at all last night?"

"Nope. Stayed home with the nog."

"Ah." Koji smirked. "So, that's what a hangover looks like. It's not pretty, Shu."

"Doesn't feel so good, either. Did you go to the dance anyway?"

"Yeah, but you didn't miss much. In fact, you should have come and put your little secret in the punch to liven things up a bit."

"Did Kaila and Birana go?"

"Birana came and shifted around with other guys, but Kaila went straight home and hasn't been out of her room since. She's _really_ upset."

"Think she'll talk to me?"

Koji shook his head. "She's not talking to me, so I doubt she'll talk to you."

"Is she coming to the game today?"

"Doubtful."

Shuyin groaned and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "I really need to talk to her."

"I can pass her a message, if you like."

Shuyin's brow furrowed, troubled. "Nah, just ..." He thought about it and changed his mind. "Just … tell her I want to see her, so we can talk. I think she needs to hear the rest directly from me."

"Okay, I'll see if she's willing to come with me before the game." He paused and then frowned in mock threat. "But _you_ will stand on the opposite side of the room, fully dressed this time."

Shuyin snorted at the command and almost said something defiant in return, but then smiled quietly to himself as the sphere blinked off.

When he returned to the kitchen to check on his toast, his mother came in with her usual vacant expression but stopped as if she had forgotten what she came in there for. "Need something?" he asked her. When she did not respond, which was becoming all too commonplace now, he set his glass on the counter and placed his hands on her shoulders to make her focus on him. "Mom, ... what do you need?" Something looked different about her today. Her eyes were red from crying, and the dark circles under them looked darker. "Does something hurt?"

She shook her head and avoided looking at him. "It hurts too much."

"What hurts too much?" he asked, concerned and puzzled. "Let me bring you back some healing potions from the locker room today, okay? Please? Will you take some medicine if I bring it to you?"

She shook her head and started to cry again. "I can't do it anymore, Shu. I'm so sorry."

"Do what?"

"But, you'll do just fine. Right?"

"At _what_?"

"She'll help."

"Who?"

"The one you've chosen."

Shuyin shook his head at her incoherent mutterings and sat down to eat his toast. When he was done, he put away his dish and grabbed the remainder of his blitzball uniform from the dryer. Then, he went to the bathroom to shower, change into his uniform, and brush his teeth. Not long after that, he heard a knock at the front door. Knowing that would be Koji, Shuyin jogged into the living room to answer it. "I'm almost ready. I just have to pack my bag," he told him as he let him into the living room.

"Okay. Oh, and ... Kaila's here, but she's not happy about it, so don't expect much," Koji whispered in warning as his sister came in behind him and gave Shuyin a cold glare.

Shuyin felt relieved, but immediately became nervous about screwing up a second time. "Oh good. Okay. Um, ..."

There was a sound of glass shattering in the kitchen.

"Damn," he muttered, distraught, and looked over his shoulder. "We're going to be eating off of the coasters if she keeps this up. Hold on a minute," he told his friends before heading back into the kitchen. He was annoyed, but prepared to clean up another shattered mess. He was even prepared to find she had fainted on the floor again. Ignoring his broken juice glass, he dropped beside her and turned her head toward him to check how alert she was first.

"Shu ..." With tears in her eyes, Dannae touched his cheek with a cold, wet hand.

"Mom, you need to go back to bed." He raised her shoulders and started to help her up, but then noticed how unusually limp and pale she was.

"I loved both of you so much. Someday, … I know you will understand." Closing her eyes, she released her pain with a soft, sad sigh.

"Mom?" He touched her cheek and her head tilted away from him as if she had fainted away again. He touched her cheek once more, but she was unresponsive. "That's it. I don't care what you want, I'm taking you to a healer. You have to do this, like it or not," he fussed, not realizing how much he sounded like his father all those years ago.

With caution, Koji had followed Shuyin into the kitchen. He took one look at his friend's mother on the floor, and then the sink, before realizing the full extent of what had happened. "Shu, ... let her go." Sympathetic, he crouched next to him and placed a hand over Shuyin's shoulder.

"She's just fainted again. She does this all the time. Hold the door for me." He slipped his arms underneath his mother's frail body.

"Put her down, Shu." Koji repeated a little more firmly. "You can't help her now."

"What? No. I don't care what she says, I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago. I'm taking her to a summoner."

Koji grabbed Shuyin's shoulders with firm force to interrupt his attempt to stand with her. "Would you listen to me? You can't help her anymore." He showed him one of Dannae's wrists.

Kaila had come into the kitchen behind her brother and stood in the doorway stunned, but she gasped when she saw what Koji was trying to point out to Shuyin. "Oh my gosh!"

Shuyin's heart constricted as his eyes followed the blood smears that he had not noticed before. "Mom?" Her wrists had bled onto her hands, smudged her nightgown, and smeared the floor. He looked to the red tainted water and the knife near the sink where she had been standing before she fainted. "No." He released her shoulders, stood, and backed away shaking his head in disbelief. "No, she wouldn't do that. She's sick, but she wouldn't give up and quit like that. A summoner or a white mage can ... can still heal her." His voice caught in his throat. The rush of emotions that suddenly bombarded him were overwhelming.

Forgetting her declaration to not waste another minute on him, Kaila rushed to his side and tried to turn him away from the sight. "Shuyin ..."

"Kaila, please, go get a summoner," he begged her.

"But she's already -"

"She's not dead yet! Go get a summoner!" he shouted at her.

Koji touched his sister's arm. "Contact the temple and ask for one of the summoners. Someone needs to do the sending."

Kaila hesitated to leave Shuyin, but then nodded in agreement with her brother's level-headed thinking and ran out of the kitchen.

Shuyin returned to his mother's side and lifted her hand to look again, as if still unable to make the connection between her wounds and her lack of response. Tears began to fill his eyes. "Why would she do this?"

Koji sighed with sadness. "Why does anyone do it? Reality becomes too much of a burden, and a quick escape is easier than worrying to death over a long time."

"What?" Shuyin sniffled as he looked to him with a wounded expression. "Are you saying she did this because of me?"

"No, of course not. I'm just saying it's not surprising. She was long gone before today, Shu. You know that. We all saw this coming. It was only a matter of time."

Shuyin interpreted his friend's calm as an unfeeling observation. "How can you say something like that at a time like this?"

Koji didn't realize he had said anything insulting. "Have you been in denial the whole time you've been taking care of her?"

"It's kind of hard to walk around in denial when there's broken glass all over the floor, nothing's being done around here, and I'm having to field calls about why my mom isn't showing up for work again."

"Which is … why I said we knew this was inevitable."

"So, I should have had a summoner waiting outside to do final rites at any given moment?"

"No, but … if you really didn't want this to happen you could have brought a white mage to the house before now."

"She didn't want me to! I was trying to respect her wishes!"

"Well, if you weren't trying to save her, what did you expect?"

"You think I didn't try to save her?" Shuyin's composure broke as raked a hand across his tears, smearing the bloody smudge that his mother's last touch left on his cheek. "She didn't want to be saved! I did everything I could to change her mind."

"Except bring a white mage to the house."

Shuyin became angrier. "So you _are_ saying this is my fault!"

Koji's patience with his friend's erratic behavior had waned. "All I'm saying is that she's been losing her freakin' mind ever since your dad left. It's as if she needed someone to slap her around to keep her sane, or something, but if you truly wanted to save her, you could have done something different to help. Look, I know you're upset, but don't take it out on me. I'm sorry your mom killed herself, but it's not my fault she felt there was nothing left to live for."

Shuyin stared at his childhood friend with more hurt and hate than he ever thought he was capable of feeling toward him. He confronted Koji with a deep frown, and clouds darkened his ocean blue eyes. "Get out."

Koji immediately regretted speaking so harshly. "Okay, I admit that was out of line. I'm probably still wound up from the argument last night, but blaming me because you're feeling responsible for this -"

"Get out!" Shuyin yelled, giving Koji's chest an emphatic, open-handed punch toward the door.

Straightening his uniform shirt back into place, Koji met Shuyin's glare with narrowed eyes. "You know what? I don't know why I even bothered trying to patch things up with you. You are _just_ like your father - hot tempered, arrogant, and unable to see the truth even when its right in front of you." He turned around and marched out of the kitchen toward the front door.

Kaila peered into the kitchen with caution, but Shuyin's dark demeanor made her keep her distance. "A summoner is on his way," she quietly informed him. "I'm so sorry about your mother, Shu." She wiped away a tear and gave him a hug, which he did not resist, … and eventually returned.

Shuyin rested his cheek on her shoulder, sniffled, and tried to blink the moisture from his eyes.

"Do you want me to stay with you until he comes?"

"I think … I'd rather be alone."

Kaila nodded in understanding, released him, and reluctantly left him to his grief.

As he watched the door shut behind her, Shuyin mentally kicked himself for forgetting to apologize to her. But then he turned his attention to his mother's lifeless form once more. Koji was right. He did feel responsible for not being able to save her. But there one person he blamed more than himself. If Jecht had not abandoned them, Dannae would not have had such a hard time raising their son by herself. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks now that he was alone. Kneeling beside his mother, he gently lifted her torso into his arms and hugged her to his chest as he buried his face into her neck. "I'm sorry I wasn't an easy kid, but ... I never did anything to hurt you like he did. How could you leave me like this to be with him? How could you love him more than me?"


	8. Chapter 8: Star of the Abes

Chapter 8: Star of the Abes

Shuyin was escorted to the temple by some white mages while summoners took care of Dannae's body and the tragic scene she left behind. At her sending, as his mother's casket was lowered into the water, and the pyreflies of her soul were sent to the Farplane to be with her long-lost husband, Shuyin sat on the edge of the pier feeling nothing but alone.

When the summoner's dance was done, the temple representatives spoke with Shuyin briefly about his living conditions and relatives. Then, they took the orphaned teen to the temple again to watch over him until a decision could be made about what to do with him. No living relatives came forward to claim him, so he stayed at the temple for a month while they worked out the legal details regarding the houseboat and his parents' other assets. He tolerated the legal fuss until it was finally decided that, since he had no means of making payments on the docking rent, his home would need to be impounded and liquidated into a inheritance account. It was also decided that he would be housed in a dorm at the temple's boarding school until he became legal age. Unhappy with the temple's decisions for his future, Shuyin made a decision of his own.

He left the temple one morning and went to the main office of the Abes blitzball team. There, he waited patiently all day in the office, napping on the sofa and staring out the window at the expansive city on the sea, until he finally received word that the coach would see him.

"What do you want, kid?" Coach Bicket asked as he came in from practice with the team and took a seat at his desk. "School endorsement? Field Day tickets? Guest speaker at the awards banquet?"

"A job."

The coach looked up in surprise and chuckled. "You and every other kid out there who dreams of being a blitz player when they grow up. You waited all day for that? Go back to school."

"If I go back to school, they're going to take away my home. I need to be able to pay for it, so I need a job." He paused for a moment. "A friend of mine said he heard the Abes were going to open a junior position once Zak retires this summer, only I can't wait that long. I'd like to try out for the position now."

Coach Bicket shook his head. "We're not holding try outs right now."

Stepping forward, Shuyin thrust a folder with his stats onto the man's desk. "Please. I _need_ this." He was not above begging. "Just give me a chance to show you what I can do. I'll even take a part-time position or work as an equipment manager."

"Look, if you really think you can handle the pressure of the big league, come back this summer and try out with everyone else."

Shuyin panicked. If he waited until this summer, he would have to compete for the spot with Koji and who knows how many other players. Drawing a breath to calm his nerves, he opened his mouth and did something he swore he never would do. "I'm Jecht's son." With his only trump card on the table, he watched the man's face wash over with a very different expression. "You knew me as Tidus."

Coach Bicket leaned forward on his desk with curiosity and new interest. "Tidus? _Little_ Tidus? You were knee-high to a pyrefly the last time I saw you. Course, that was before Jecht disappeared. It's been, what, about ten years now, hasn't it?"

"Yes, Sir - nine," he politely corrected. "But now my mother is gone, too. So, they're going to keep me at the temple and sell my dad's boat, unless someone can make the payments on it." Shuyin felt as if he was selling his soul to drop his father's name like that, but he did what he felt was necessary to gain the audience. "I'd … really like to carry on my dad's legacy and play for the Abes, … if you give me the chance."

Coach Bicket leaned back in his chair and considered how much the boy had grown. "Can you do your dad's shots?"

"Some."

"Jecht shot?"

Shuyin shook his head, honest but disappointed to have to admit it. "But I can do a sphere shot. It's my best one. I've been training since I was five, and I've won awards, and these are copies of my high school score sheets for the past three years." He tried hard to sell himself as he passed the lists from the folder to the coach. "I've played all positions, but I'm strongest as a forward. Just get the ball to me, and I'll do whatever I can to make those goals happen."

The coach looked over the impromptu portfolio. "These trophies mean nothing to me, but the fact that you have a string of them says something, I suppose. The fact that you're Jecht's son, would definitely have popular appeal, ... as well as potential." Bicket folded the papers back into the portfolio and laid it on the desk, interlocking his fingers over it as he leaned forward again. "Come to the practice pool tomorrow morning at ten. Bring your gear. We'll run you through a few drills with the rest of the team. I don't normally make exceptions for tryouts like this, but for Jecht's son, I'm willing to see what you can do."

Shuyin smiled with relief. "Thank you. I'll do my best to make it worth your while." He bowed respectfully, knowing every little bit of gratitude shown might help.

"You're Jecht's son. I know you will," the coach responded.

Shuyin returned to the temple and informed the officials of his decision, asking them to allow him to quit school and find employment to keep his home. He explained his try-outs with the Abes, and though they were doubtful of his ability to handle such responsibilities, they were curious about the outcome. Apparently, even the temple summoners and white mages were blitzball fans. With Jecht's son in the pool with the Abes, they agreed to wait on the coach's decision.

))((

The next morning, right on time, Shuyin showed up at the pool and endured everything the professional blitzball players threw at him, including the jokes, comparisons to his father, and painful reminders that he wasn't yet as skilled as they were. But he held up well to their tests, and he even managed to impress them by scoring three times against their defense with his superb trick shots. By the end of the day, he came out of the pool battered from the hardest tackles he'd ever experienced in his life. He was breathless from the longest underwater plays he could ever remember. But when Coach Bicket shook his hand to welcome him to the team, it was all worth it.

Though he was still considered a ward of the temple until he reached legal age, while the city offices drew up the legal papers granting him special permission to manage his parent's property, Shuyin was released to go back home. It was a mixed blessing.

The summoners had taken the time to clean the houseboat, donate some food until he could earn his first paycheck, and would be checking in on him on a regular basis. He still had to go through his mother's belongings, so the initial nights alone were spent dealing with lingering grief. But they were mercifully short due to the long hours of daily training at a professional level and work maintaining the boat. He often crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow and slept hard until the morning alarm went off. He was careful to meet all of his payments and expenses because he knew that if he missed one, he would end up in the boarding school. He easily made friends among his new teammates and began to pass his free time with them instead of missing his old friends at school. Slowly in this manner, Shuyin began to rebuild his life.

Before he knew it, training season was over and blitzball season had arrived. He had three new uniforms in his closet - a set of black shorts with a hooded, short-waisted, yellow vest; a set of black shorts, with a red-and-black checkered shirt and a long yellow and blue vest; and a set of blue and black shorts with a yellow jersey bearing his name and the Abes insignia in bold red and black lettering across the chest and back. His dreams were finally within his grasp, even if he felt like he had to wade through a lot of mire to get there.

The publicity machines went into overdrive: Jecht's son had been signed to a contract for the Abes. All of Zanarkand was talking about it. Great things were expected of him. Photo ops of the new team formation had been taken and were broadcast on digital billboards and com casts. He was shocked to see his face in such a public venue alongside his dad's. It was exciting at first, but a little frightening as well. Once people began to recognize his face there would be no turning back - for better or worse.

))((

Shuyin had never been nervous before a game, but on the night of the season opener, he felt as if he were reliving his first swim lesson all over again. He found himself wishing Kaila or Koji were there, but he had not seen either of them since the day of his mother's death. So, he paced the locker room stretching his neck, arms, and legs while he waited to enter the sphere pool.

"Gyaaaa, you need to _sit down_," teammate Kiryl complained as she tied the last of her long, auburn braids out of her face. "You're making me nervous just watching you."

"What if I mess up?"

"Then, we'll kick you off the team." Toma pushed a strand of eye-length brown bangs behind his left ear and laced up his waterproof shoes. He was able to keep a serious face about the claim until he looked up and saw their newest player's expression droop. "That was a joke." He chuckled. "Was your dad like this? I can't imagine Jecht getting nervous about a game."

"Probably because he was too drunk," Shuyin muttered under his breath and walked to his locker. He pulled out his game notebook and went over the play strategies again in his head, then made himself close the book and put it back.

"It's his first pro game. Give the kid a break." Naya shook out her very short, silver-blond hair and pulled on her black gloves designed for gripping a wet blitzball.

"Just go out there and show them what you do at practice every day." Kiryl snapped her goggles into place on her face and adjusted the elastic band to hold them securely. "Let me show you something." She stood and pinched Shuyin's arm guard as he was adjusting the strap. Leading him from the locker room through the back door, she took him up the stairwell to the door that opened to the sphere pool and stadium. Pushing the door open a little, she let him see what was going on outside.

"So many people." His brows rose with worry. "Why'd you show this to me? I don't need to see this right now. I've never played in front a crowd this big before."

"Better for you to freeze up now than during the game. But look at it this way, those people are so small and distant, that you're not even going to be able to see them once you get in the water. It will all be one big blur behind the cyber net.

"What are you doing to him? Are you trying to freak him out?" Naya climbed the steps behind them and pulled the door shut. "I know what good for pre-game jitters. Come with me." She grabbed Shuyin's hand and pulled him down the stairs behind her to the locker room's front door.

"Where are you going? It's almost game time," Toma fussed.

"Who's throwing in the ball?"

"Don't know yet."

"Then we've got plenty of time." Naya waved off Toma's concern and lead their youngest player down the hall behind her.

"Where are we going? You better not get me fired before I earn my first win," Shuyin warned.

"Stand right there," she instructed as she left him and went to the large door at the end of the hall.

Shuyin was baffled by the pointless command. "What do I do while standing here?"

"I dunno. Look sexy or something." She winked and pulled the door open.

Having no idea what she was up to, he gave her a doubtful expression and folded his arms as he wondered what was on the other side.

Naya stuck her head out the door and raised her fingers to her lips to give a piercing whistle. "Listen up everyone! We've only got a few minutes before the game starts! Who wants an autograph from Jecht Jr.?"

He frowned. "That's not my name."

"It is for tonight. You're new, and you're the son of a legend. Smile, look pretty, and do your sphere kick. They'll love you, even if you mess up. Have fun while you can because once you become yesterday's news, they won't tolerate screw-ups and losing streaks. Fans are the most devoted, yet hardest critics of all." She grinned as anxious blitzball fans ran down the ramp to meet him and ask for autographs. "Sorry, only time for a few. We'll drag him to the Waterwall sports bar in the Neon District after the game. The rest of you can get a piece of him there." Naya shut the door to keep the crowd size under control.

"What?" He felt as if she had just offered him up as the sacrificial main course.

Naya casually strolled back to him. "This will get your mind off the nerves. Trust me." The woman folded her arms over her short, yellow vest and leaned against the wall behind her as she waited patiently for him to do this.

"Have fun," he told himself. It was something important he had told himself a long time ago - something he had forgotten recently. Accepting pen and paper from one of the fans, he gave the boy a smile and signed his name. "There you go."

The boy squinted at the signature. "Tidus? You're the guy that took Zak's place, right?"

"You can actually read my handwriting? My language arts teacher said it sucked."

"Well, it still sucks, but I can read it."

"Oh."

"You look really young for a pro player." Another fan handed him a paper.

"Well, I guess I kind of am." He didn't want to explain any further than that, but he signed his name and passed the paper back. Then, he turned to another boy and accepted his pen and paper.

"Could you sign two for me? I'd like one for my sister," the boy asked.

"Sure thing." He signed and passed one paper back in exchange for another. "Is your sister being shy?"

"No, she said she had more important things to do."

He lifted his chin and blinked at the boy for a moment. "What's more important than blitzball?"

"Well, she's not really a blitzball fan. In fact, she doesn't like it at all. She promised she'd come with me to a game, but she keeps making excuses not to. If I show her I got a player's signature, maybe it will remind her to keep her promise."

"Oh, well, in that case, what's your sister's name?" He crouched eye-level with the boy to see his face under the hoodie he wore.

"Lenne," the quiet boy answered.

"Okay, then. This one's for Lenne." Shuyin wrote a message, rather than a signature, on the second paper. "That should do it. And if she still doesn't want to come to a game, come back and we'll brainstorm a way to talk some sense into her, okay?"

The boy read the message aloud. "'Lenne, you made a promise to your little brother. Get your butt in this stadium to watch a game.'" He smiled at the ridiculous command as he accepted his pen back. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Time's up! Sorry, but the game's about to begin!" Naya announced, ushering the fans back out and closing the large door. Walking back to the locker room with him, she smirked at the more relaxed expression on his face. "Feel better?"

"Yeah, actually I do. Thanks." He patted his short-waisted, yellow vest with a little more confidence now.

Naya nodded at his response and opened the locker room door.

"I saw that. Naya's got you working the fans already? Good job. Good for public relations" Coach Bicket entered the locker room with them. "Okay, listen up everyone! The decision's been made that Tidus should be the one to throw in the first ball of the season."

"Me? But -"

"That stadium is ninety percent curiosity seekers tonight, and you're the main attraction. Everyone wants to see what Jecht's son can do, even the fans of the other team. So, ... they're going to get what they paid for. Do it just like we showed you at practice, then hit the pool. Tackle hard, and give those shots everything you got. First impression counts. Don't let us down." He shoved the blitzball into the boy's chest. "Huddle!"

"Everything I got." He gave the ball a light toss and caught it. Then, he joined the huddle.

"Abes!" Toma shouted.

"Abes! Go! Fight! Win!" Everyone else responded and slapped hands together.

"All right let's go show them the reason we were last year's champions!" the coach shouted.

Shuyin straightened his short-waisted, yellow vest and adjusted the straps of the black shorts. Then, he steadied his nerves and ascended the stairs to step into the calf-deep water of the center ring. He could hear the crowd buzzing with excitement all around him, but it was too dark to see anything just yet. He sat down on the bench within the ring, lay his head back and closed his eyes to steady his concentration. Even above all that, he could hear his heart beating too fast. _Have fun_ ...

The game opening ceremonies began, and when the time came, he stood on cue to the announcement of his name. The crowd cheered to know that Jecht's son had taken their most recently retired favorite's place in the Abes. He waved to the people packing the stadium - first a small wave, and then a really big one with both arms, as a smile found its way to his face. If all these people came to see him tonight, he would do his best to not disappoint them. _Have fun_ ...

When the sphere pool was ready for play, he looked down at the space he had within the ring where he stood, and then checked the position of his teammates waiting behind him. The whistle blew, and he decided to take a chance. First impression needed to be better than good. It needed to be unforgettable. Instead of pitching the ball into the pool as he was instructed to do during practice, he tossed it high, studied its position, and leaped up to meet it. He gave it one head volley to place it exactly where he needed it in the air before arching backwards and punching it toward the pool with a powerful kick instead.

Clustered in the doorway, his teammates and coach gasped. If he hit the side of the ring and fell from that height, he would never play ball again, … if he survived the fall.

The ball pierced through the cyber net and water spell like an arrow, then was drawn down to the center circle ready for game play. Shuyin finished his rotation and nailed the landing. The crowd went wild, cheering the spectacular shot. He grinned at their reaction and waved both hands in the air again, but was immediately smacked on the back of the head by his coach as his team jogged out to join the roster call.

"Don't you ever do that again without warning me first! You want to be side-lined with an injury before the game even begins? You're going to be a knucklehead show-off just like your father, aren't you?"

_Jecht Jr_. laughed and shrugged. "Just having a little fun." He ran behind his teammates to punch through the sphere pool and assume his position for play.

The Abes lost their first match of the season, but it was a close game all the way, and the loss was only by one point. The fans loved each and every shot Shuyin attempted to make, ... even the ones that failed. He didn't know how long they would be that forgiving, so like Naya advised, he determined he would enjoy it while he could.

))((

At the next game, when his nerves started edging up, Shuyin left the locker room and cracked the doors between the back rooms and the main entrance, curious to see if any fans were out there again. He was amazed at how many there were, but he was even more amazed when he was widely recognized.

"Oh! Look! There's one of the Abes!"

"Can I have your autograph?"

"That's the new guy."

"Jecht's son - what's his name?"

"Jecht Jr."

Shuyin frowned and shook his head at the nickname as he came into full view instead of hiding behind the door. He was immediately surrounded by excited people holding up paper scraps, game programs, T-shirts, and blitzballs.

"Okay! Woah! One at a time." He accepted a paper and pen.

"Are you going to do a Jecht shot tonight?"

"No, but I'll do a sphere shot. Don't tell me that's not good enough, unless you can do one, too," he answered as he traded pens and papers for another signing.

The crowd chuckled.

"Can you teach us how to do one?" one of the boys in the crowd asked, passing his blitzball to him to be signed.

"No way! Your parents would kill me if I threw you in the air and let you land on your head."

More chuckles rose from the gathering, and the boy questioning him laughed.

"You're supposed to throw the _ball_ up in the air - not me."

"But if you can't jump high enough to kick it, then I'd have to throw you up there, too." He stuck his tongue out at the boy, giving him a taste of his own attitude, but then he spun the ball around his wrist into his finger and handed it back to him, winning the boy's grin of approval. Winning the crowd's interest with his cheerful chattiness, one fan at a time, was different from earning their interest because of his father's name. It worked well for him. Among the autograph seekers, however, he finally came to a little boy in a purple, hooded shirt. "Hey, I remember you from last week. Are you a regular ticket holder or something?"

"No. I can't get into any of the games. I just like coming here anyway." The boy shrugged.

"Can't get into the games? Why not?"

"My mom's schedule always conflicts with the games. She won't let me buy a ticket by myself because she says the stadium gets kind of rough sometimes. So, this is as far as I can go, ... unless my sister comes with me."

"And she didn't come this time either," he guessed. "Hmm. Got any paper?"

"No, but you already gave me an autograph last week."

"Well, I got another message for your sister." Shuyin borrowed a pen from another spectator and pushed the boy's short sleeve up to his shoulder. "Her name was Lenne, right?" He wrote her name on the boy's arm, making him smile a little at the ticklish sensation of the pen's felt point on his skin. "'You were supposed to bring your brother to the game.'" He paused after writing that and looked at the boy. "Why couldn't she come?"

"She had a date this time."

"Oh." He considered that for a minute. "Is she cute?"

The boy made a face. "She's my sister."

"Right, sorry. Didn't mean to creep you out there. Okay, how about this." Shuyin continued writing. "'Your date can't be _that_ good looking. Bring your brother to one of my games!'" The spectators looking on chuckled lightly. "Can't hurt to try, right?" he shrugged.

"If you're looking for a date, I'm free after the game." One of the girls in the crowd offered.

"So, am I." Another one joined in.

Shuyin released the boy's arm and straightened. "Really? Hm, ... you're putting me in a tough spot there. If I have to pick only one of you to go out with after the game ..."

"We could both go," one of them suggested. The other nodded in agreement.

Shuyin was stunned into dreamy silence when the door behind him opened again and teammate Luperis grabbed the back of his shirt to pull him away. "Woah! Hey! What are you doing? I was in the middle of something there!"

"Naya showed you a bad, bad trick. You got a game to play, boy." The large man dragged him backwards into the hallway and back to the locker room.

"But I had two dates! At the same time! Two!"

Luperis shook his head and kept hauling him toward the sphere pool.


	9. Chapter 9: Songstress

Chapter 9: Songstress

At the third game of the season, Shuyin returned to the end of the hall before the match to see if the two girls he'd met before were there. They weren't, but others were, and this time he did manage to set a meeting place and time with some of them for the after-game carousing with his teammates. Oddly enough, however, the boy that he knew only as "Lenne's brother" was also back.

"Did she come this time?" he asked.

The boy shook his head.

"Did you bring paper?"

The boy gave a shy smile and handed him a piece.

Shuyin laughed. "That's the spirit! We'll get her here one way or another, right? If not, then I'll take you to a game myself."

"But, you'll be in the sphere pool. I can't sit in the sphere pool. I can't even swim."

"But you could sit somewhere close to it. I got an idea." He started writing. _"Lenne, shame on you for snogging some lecher when you could be here at my game. I'm offering a special ring-side seat for the kid next time, and you're not invited." _Capping the pen, he lowered his voice to a whisper. "Ask your mom if you can come to the game as my guest. I can get you a seat in a place where you won't have to worry about rowdy drunks. Don't tell anyone else, though, because I'm not supposed to be doing this, okay?"

"My sister's not going to like this, you know. And my mother won't believe me."

"What do you mean she won't believe you? I've written it down."

"Anyone could have written that."

"Then come anyway, and we just won't tell anyone."

"Noooo. You'll get me in trouble," the boy complained.

"But, trouble's the only thing I'm good at besides blitzball." Shuyin gave the boy a playful wink and a grin.

))((

By the fourth game of the season, Shuyin was in the habit of showing up outside the locker room to hang out with fans for a few minutes before the game. The crowd that came to meet him had grown large enough that he couldn't speak with everyone, but Lenne's little brother was there as usual. So, as soon as he got the chance, he pulled the boy aside. "Well? What's the verdict, want to see the game from a special seat?"

"Um, my mom doesn't believe you." He offered up another piece of paper, but this time it already had writing on it. "Neither does my sister."

Shuyin accepted the unexpected return note and opened it up to read aloud. "_'Stop using my brother to send me stupid notes, you idiot pervert. If you're that desperate for a date, go doggy-hump a street sign.'_" He giggled at the scathing challenge, then looked to the boy again. "Got a pen?"

The boy sighed and passed one to him. "I was afraid you'd say that."

Shuyin flipped the note over and wrote on the back. _"If you don't like my notes, then keep your promise and bring the kid to a game!"_ He accompanied the note with a quick doodle of a monkey spanking its own bottom.

The kid looked at him with doubt as he received the note and pen back. "You can't be serious. I can't take this to her."

"If she's going to call me rude names, then I get to draw rude pictures."

The boy shook his head and walked away to deliver the message, unable to believe that his simple request for an autograph had deteriorated into this.

))((

Game season was off to a winning start so far with only one loss, and Shuyin had surprised the temple's representatives on their recent check-in visit with his modest success at managing the pace of his responsibilities both toward his team and his home.

"If something doesn't break down on my boat again, I've got a little spare change saved up now so I can start buying fun stuff again," he told his teammate, Luperis, as they did warm-up stretches on the side of the training pool. "My old man used to keep the thing up pretty good, but my mom really let it run down after he left. I didn't realize how bad it was, and I'm not much good at fixing things. I think the engine's going to die before I'm even old enough to get my license to drive it."

Luperis paused and went to the music sphere player to make a song selection. "You should get a motorbike, man. They're small, cheap, and fast."

"I've thought about it. Don't have enough gil to get anything like that yet, though." Shuyin switched legs and repeated the previous stretch, but he was distracted from his countdown by Luperis's music. "Hey, I like that song. Who does it?"

Luperis tossed him the label from the bottom of the sphere to let him see for himself. "She's new to the scene, but she's pretty good. So far, her concerts have been scheduled at the same time as our games, but I intend to go to one as soon as our schedules don't conflict. Want to come along?"

Shuyin gazed quietly at the cover photo of the young beauty with chocolate brown eyes and long, silken brown hair. "What? Oh, ... yeah. But ... it's been a long time since I've been to something like a concert. I don't have anything to wear besides shorts and T-shirts these days."

"Wear your uniform. That'll make you stand out in the crowd. Not that you'd _ever_ play the celebrity card to get a girl's attention." He chuckled and grabbed his sphere label back, putting it away before sitting down to finish his stretches.

"Pffft!" Kiryl commented behind them. "Have you seen him ham it up signing autographs?"

"Hey, I don't _need_ a celebrity card or uniform to get dates, thank you very much." Shuyin cast them a wry glance for their teasing and crawled toward the music sphere for another look at the young woman on the label. "Although, … she might be more willing to let a member of the Abes backstage rather than some schmoe screaming obscenities at her from the fifth row." It sounded like a good plan to him, anyway.

Luperis shook his head in amusement. "Give it up, man. According to the latest news, she's taken."

Shuyin sighed in disappointment. "Figures." Lamenting his luck, he put the sphere label back. "She's probably having an affair with her guitarist or something, right? It's always the guitarist," Shuyin assured him as he stood and returned to the side of the pool. "Guitarists are always so skinny, though. No idea what girls see in them."

The larger man gave a deep-throated chuckle. "You're not one to talk about skinny, kid."

"Excuse me? I am _not_ skinny."

"You're so lightweight, I could bench press you with one hand behind my back. Even Naya could bench press you with one hand behind her back. Why do you think Coach told you to hit the weight room more often? You need to survive those solid tackles out there without getting crunched, or you're going to be guzzling our whole cabinet of healing potions."

Shuyin compared his sinewy arms and chest to Luperis's muscle-bunched biceps and pecs. Okay, so he was half the size of that ape, but he proudly patted his hard-earned abs. "Well, I may not be as massive as Mount Gagazet or _old _like you guys, but I'm conveniently compact. And everyone knows the best gifts come in small packages. It's not the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean, baby. Ha-ha!"

Having finished her warm-ups, Kiryl smirked seeing his boastful little victory dance and effortlessly thrust a hand into his shoulder as she walked past. Their rookie member was thrown off-balance and fell into the pool with an ungraceful splash.

Shuyin surfaced, spitting water to the side and frowning at Kiryl for pushing him.

"I gotta hand it to you, kid. That was a pretty big motion." Laughing, Luperis stood and pitched a blitzball at him. "But you better work on the size of that ship before someone from the other team mistakes you for the ball."

Shuyin squinted as it landed on the surface of the water and splashed some into his face, but he caught it. "Great. I'm going to end up dating a weight bench for the rest of the season."

))((

The next time that Shuyin opened the doors to greet the growing number of fans, the first person in the crowd that caught his eye was the quiet boy that he had been passing notes with. Talking with him was becoming a game in itself. He walked to him and leaned forward, placing his hands on his knees to speak eye-level as he grinned. "What's the verdict this time, kid?"

"Is this him?"

Shuyin looked up at the feminine voice. Behind the boy stood a chic young woman in large, hoop earrings, sun glasses, and a puffed cap. She wore a chartreuse cami and a long white skirt with equally long slits up each shapely thigh, and white heeled sandals. He wasn't aware of the fact that his mouth had dropped open, making him look for a moment as if his mind had turned to mush.

"Yeah, that's him." The boy nodded.

A second later, the harmless-looking, petite woman had lunged toward Shuyin shoving several scraps of paper under his nose. "_What _is the meaning of this?" she fussed. "Get your butt in this stadium? Your date can't be _that_ good looking? Shame on you for snogging some lecher? You know I've met a lot of egotistical men in my day, but you absolutely take the cake!"

He realized this could be only one person. "You forgot about the monkey."

"You have no right use my brother to send me stupid messages telling me that I'm not keeping my promise to him. I have not broken any promises; I have been busy. Busy! I will bring him to the game when I find the time, and until then, I will thank you to mind your own business." She thrust the notes against his chest, leaving them with him and turned to storm away.

He caught her by the arm. "Wait, Lenne. Gimme a break! I'm just trying to help the kid see one of the games. He's been here every weekend since the season opener, even though he knew he couldn't get into any of them. If you let him come to a game as my guest, I can give him a safe place to sit."

"No."

"Why not?"

"He won't be supervised, and I am not leaving him with someone like you."

"Look ..." Shuyin opened the big doors to the back room and pulled both of them inside to speak privately. "Down this hall is our locker room, and inside the back door is a stairwell that leads directly to the sphere pool. He can sit at the top of the stairs and have one of the best seats in the house for the game without getting hit by rowdy drunks."

"Or stray players that get busted up and thrown out of the pool?" She quirked a brow and folded her arms at her chest. "I know how violent this game can get since there's no rules about those tackles. Kicking people in the stomach, kicking people in the head -"

He winced and shrugged off that minor detail. "Okay, so a few players get hurled into the stands now and then. What are the chances of them scoring a hit on a kid sitting inside the locker room door? You don't even have to stay for the whole game. Just let him sit through the first quarter or something."

The boy turned with a pleading look and tugged his sister's arm. "Please, please, please, please, please?"

Lenne registered a sigh of defeat. "We'll stay for five minutes, but then you agree to back off and mind your own business. Deal?"

"Five minutes? It'll take us that long to get in the water."

"_Five minutes_," she emphatically repeated.

"Sheesh! Okay! You know, you really should consider cutting back on the caffeine, or steroids, or ... something." He frowned slightly, but then gestured for them to follow. "Just don't tell anyone about this, okay? If word gets out that I'm inviting people to watch the game from the locker room entrance to the pool, more people will want to do it, and I can't offer something like this as a regular thing."

"Then why are you offering it to my brother?" she asked with suspicion. "Is it because of me?"

Shuyin snorted in amusement. "And you said _I _was egotistical? What makes you think I'd be interested in you? You called me an idiot pervert and told me to doggy-hump a signpost, remember?"

"Because you told me to ditch my date to come see you play."

"No, I told you to stop snogging the ugly bastard and keep your promise to your little brother. I'm doing this for_ him._" He opened the locker room door and walked them past the other Abes players.

"Um, … " Suzam blinked in surprise at the appearance of the young woman and the boy being escorted through their locker room to their sphere entrance. "What are you doing? You're not supposed to bring people back here."

"Yeah, well, ... whatever." Shuyin led Lenne and her little brother up the stairs and pushed open the door to let them see the stadium from the point of view of the players. "You can sit right here," he told the boy. "The players will come past you to throw in the ball and enter the pool, so stay out of their way when they come through. But other than that, no one should bother you here.

The boy's eyes lit up at being so close to the action and turned to his sister again. "Please, please, please, please, please?"

"One minute," she answered and grabbed the blitz player's arm to pull him back a few steps. Then, she lowered her voice with suspicion. "Okay, what's the catch?"

"No catch. Honest." He watched his teammates jog up the stairs toward the door to await the start of the game. "Hey, don't step on the kid! Small, squishy thing on the left! Stay clear, thank you! He's just going to watch from there!" He ignored their doubtful expressions, but was relieved when they spoke to the boy and welcomed him to the game all the same.

Lenne looked back up the stairs and saw the smile on the boy's face as the team members acknowledged him. Only then did her expression soften a little. "Bahamut has always been a very quiet boy. He's really smart and really talented with magic. But because he's so serious, he doesn't have many friends. He's going to make a great summoner some day, so why he likes to watch this barbaric game is beyond me. It's not like he's ever going to actually play it."

Shuyin looked over his shoulder at the boy. "Maybe he wishes he could."

"He's never played sports, or even been interested in them, until you started sending him home with those idiot notes. He's a fragile child better suited to magic studies than clubbing someone for a ball."

"Then why was he here? Maybe the little guy sometimes wishes he could be something completely different from what everyone expects. Maybe he wishes he was someone strong enough to break out of that mold." He faced Lenne again. "He comes every week, ... faithfully."

"Did he tell you that?"

Shuyin shrugged, but was sincere. "Just a guess. Let him see one game. You promised."

Lenne sighed and gave up trying to fight this. "Tidus -"

"Shuyin," he introduced himself. "It's my real name, and I kinda wish more people would use it sometimes."

"Thank you for being kind to him."

"No problem." He smiled and folded his arms over his chest. He glanced up at the boy, but then his gaze shifted to Lenne. He couldn't see much of her face because they stood in the shadows, and she wore that big hat with sun glasses; but aside from that, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. He blamed the cami and the split skirt. If she hadn't been so defensive about this whole incident, he would have been tempted to express more interest in her; but he had said there would be no catch. So, he kept his word, held his tongue, and forced himself to stay focused on the obnoxiously large hat and glasses.

"Hey, are you coming? The Warriors just threw in the ball!" Cetan, another teammate, called down the stairs to him.

"That's my cue." Shuyin stuffed the notes she had returned to him back into her hand. "I'll come back at half-time to check on him - sooner if I'm out of play for some reason. He can stay for as much of the game as he likes. Just be sure to close the outside doors behind you when you leave." As he passed Bahamut on the stairs, he smirked and tugged the boy's hood down over his face. Then, he jogged out onto the center ring to wave at the fans and run toward the sphere pool.

))((

With a sigh, Lenne leaned against the wall and watched her little brother delight in his prize seating arrangement for the game. She didn't have the heart to pull him away. Looking down at the crumpled messages in her hand, she shook her head and hesitantly opened one to read it again. This time, instead of making her angry, the note made her smile.

))((

When Shuyin stepped out to meet the fans at the next game, he was surprised to see Lenne and her brother among them again. He signed autographs, making his way to them, and then came to a stop in front of them. "Did you come to shove more paper up my nose, or did you miss my poetry?"

Lenne tried not to show too much amusement. "Poetry? That's an interesting name for it. I came to return the favor. After what you did for my brother, I'd like to invite you to one of my concerts. Here's the schedule. I think most of the shows conflict with your games, but hopefully there's one or two you could sneak into."

He accepted the schedule. "A concert? Cool. Do you sing?"

Lenne blinked at him in genuine surprise, but then laughed. "Oh my gosh. You _really_ don't know who I am, do you? Can we step inside those doors again for a minute?"

Waving once more to the other fans, Shuyin pushed open the door and allowed them entrance before following in behind them and shutting it. When he turned back around, Lenne pulled off her puffy hat and shook out her long, brown hair so that it cascaded down her back. Then, she removed her sun glasses and presented herself with a big smile.

"Ah!" He pointed to her with wide-eyed surprise. "She's you? You're her! You're that singer Luperis was listening to!" He promptly smacked the back of Bahamut's head. "You didn't tell me your sister was a famous singer when I was writing those stupid notes," he complained.

Bahamut quietly smiled at the blitz player's embarrassment.

"My songs were a little more successful than I first thought they could be. I'm grateful, of course, but recently, if I go out without some kind of cover-up, I get noticed a little too much. I guess I'm just not comfortable with all the attention yet." Lenne lifted the hat and glasses in explanation for needing them. "And I tend to get a lot of questionable notes from strange people, so ..."

Shuyin scratched the back of his head and tried not to look guilty. "So, you thought I was some kind of stalker? I guess the monkey doodle didn't help."

Lenne laughed lightly. "Seems we both had a misunderstanding. Anyway, you're invited to watch a concert from a special place up front, if you want, in exchange for your favor to my brother."

"I'll be there." Shuyin was still somewhat stupefied by the unexpected meeting, but he couldn't resist the temptation to flirt this time. "And maybe after, we could get something to eat or ... look for something else to do? It's the hat. I can't get enough of it. Really."

Lenne smiled, but her expression became apologetic. "I'm sorry, but ... I'm seeing someone else."

"Oh, right - interrupted snogging," he remembered. "Oh well. Can't blame me for asking." He shrugged in defeat.

She smiled at his subtle compliment, but then scooped her long hair back under her hat and slipped the sunglasses back on. "I'll look forward to seeing you again, then, … at the concert." Taking her little brother's hand, she excused herself from the interior hall, and disappeared back into the crowd.

))((

Several weeks later, when Shuyin showed up outside the Zanarkand Concert Hall, Bahamut met him and led him inside to a backstage area. The boy then walked him to a front row section of reserved seats at center stage. But as Shuyin approached his seat, his attention shifted to the young man sitting in one of the chairs near him. It had been five months since he'd seen Koji, and he almost didn't recognize him. His shoulder-length hair had been trimmed to his chin. His jawline was now defined with a bit of scruff, and his hazel-green eyes had a much more brooding look about them.

Koji was equally surprised to see Shuyin, but the way they stiffened upon seeing each other, they both knew that not much had changed beyond physical appearances.

"That's new." Shuyin scratched lightly along his own jawline. "Makes you look older."

"I feel like I've aged five years in the past five months, so I figured I might as well look the part. You're still baby-faced as ever, I see," he noted. "I'd heard life as a ward of the temple had been good to you - letting you live on your own, allowing you to get a job, and all that. But you are still technically an underage dependent, right?"

Shuyin frowned at the cool undertone in that statement. "How's Kaila?"

"Moving on."

Bahamut felt the chill between them. "You know each other?"

"Yeah," Shuyin reluctantly answered.

"What are you doing here?" Koji asked.

"I was invited."

Koji's eyes narrowed speculatively, but he chuckled as if reluctantly amused at something. "Don't tell me Lenne invited you?"

"I let her brother watch a free game, so she's letting me watch a free concert."

"And that's it?" He seemed to suspect there was more to it than that.

"That's it. How do you know her?"

Koji relaxed a little in his seat and gave his childhood friend a wry smile. "She's my girlfriend."

Shuyin smirked as if seeing through some kind of joke. "No way. How did you ever hook up with someone like her?"

"Is it such a hard thing to believe that she would be interested in me? Do you see me as that much of a loser without your shining personality to help me attract women?"

Shuyin's smirk faded at Koji's sarcasm. "I'm just asking how you met her. Stop reading stuff into it that's not there."

"Well, for one thing you weren't around," Koji pointedly told him. "For another, a friend of a friend introduced us, and she liked the fact that I was a genuine personality compared to the show-offs that usually try to impress her."

Shuyin's eyes darkened at the subtle verbal jab. "Well, if she doesn't like show-offs then you have nothing to worry about with me being invited."

Bahamut followed the double-edged conversation and decided to take the seat between them - to keep them apart, if nothing else.

Shuyin felt uncomfortable being there now. The conditions under which their friendship had parted ways were still too fresh in his memory. But he didn't want to offend Lenne by walking out on her concert, so he made himself sit down and turned his attention to the empty stage. With nothing to say to his former friend, he became uncharacteristically quiet.

"So, how is it? Playing for the Abes ..." Koji pulled an ankle over one knee and clasped a hand over it. "Not surprising to see how quickly that part-time junior slot got canceled as soon as you signed on. If Jecht Jr. steps up to play, then the rest of us poor sods don't stand a chance, do we?"

Shuyin shook his head knowing Koji was going to bring that up. "I needed the job so I could keep my home," he answered, not wanting to discuss it.

"The thing that puzzled me was that they canceled the summer try-outs. All you had to do was waltz in there and tell them who your father was. Am I right?"

Shuyin turned in his seat to face Koji and spoke across Bahamut. "They didn't make me wait until summer, but they _did_ make me try out. I had to prove I could handle it, just like anyone else. This position wasn't just handed to me."

"But you dropped Jecht's name, or you would have had to wait until summer to compete with everyone else."

"I couldn't wait until summer because my mother died in the spring. Surely you remember that day because you're the _smart_ one that was so able to see it coming."

Bahamut cleared his throat to remind them he was there.

Shuyin made himself sit back in his chair and face the empty stage as the lights began to dim. He tried to ignore the fact that he was sitting next to Koji, so he could enjoy Lenne's show. But the more that he thought about Lenne, the harder it was to swallow the fact that she was with Koji. Ironically, he realized the resentment he was beginning to feel was probably similar to how Koji must have felt about him all this time. It was stupid to fight over a girl again - stupid!

))((

The music started, and the spotlights flashed toward the stage. Lenne stood at the center of attention and grinned down at the guest box where her boyfriend, her brother, and her guest sat together. She wondered why none of them looked happy, but she kept smiling for the sake of the show.

She had just started to sing, however, when Shuyin stood and headed toward the exit. He paused at the door to turn back and watch her for a moment, but then left the concert hall. Lenne's smile faded as she watched him go, but she managed to keep her mind on her lyrics and continue singing. She wondered what was wrong, but inquiring about it would have to wait until later. For now, the show must go on.


	10. Chapter 10: Star Struck

Chapter 10: Star Struck

The next night when Shuyin came out of the locker room after a late evening, he was surprised to find Lenne waiting for him outside the back room door. She had her hair up in the puffy hat again, but she had skipped the sun glasses because her features were hidden enough by the shadows. There was no crowd, of course, because it wasn't a game night, but this time not even her little brother seemed to be present.

She greeted him with an uncertain smile and stood from where she sat listening to music. Then, she removed her headphones and draped them around her neck before turning the music off.

He was wary of her unexpected appearance and half-expected Koji to step out from around the corner.

"I saw you leave in the middle of the concert."

"I … wanted to stay, but ..."

"I asked Koji what upset you, and he told me you used to be friends. But he said you had a big argument, so you don't get along very well now. I'm ... sorry."

Shuyin doubted that was all Koji told her. "You don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I didn't realize I was putting you both in an uncomfortable situation. I'm willing to offer you another seat when he's not there, ... to make up for it."

"Thanks, but he probably wouldn't like that." He walked around her and toward the stadium exit.

Lenne walked alongside him. "It's just a concert, and I can invite whoever I want. It can be our little secret."

Shuyin winced as if hearing Kaila's words again. Trouble had followed on the heels of those words. For once, he reminded himself to think of the consequences of this impulse before following it. "Nah, I'll just pay for my tickets like everyone else. It's best if I stay clear."

"Well, there must be some way I can make it up to you. I feel terrible about this."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. You didn't know." He headed toward one of the many floating bridges of Zanarkand that led to the harbor. "No big deal, okay?"

"If you say so." She gave up trying to press another concert on him, but continued to walk beside him. "Do you always work this late?"

"Extra hours in the weight gym lately. I've been ordered to bulk up so I don't get knocked around in the pool like a string of seaweed."

"Seaweed has its uses. It can't push back, but it tangles around your feet, feeling all slimy … That alone can be very distracting and annoying." She smiled lightly.

He quirked a brow. "So, I'm a slimy idiot pervert now?"

She laughed lightly. "I think what I'm trying to say is that you're agile. You swim fast and are all over the other players for that ball. Can't be fast if you're heavy."

"How would you know how I play? You don't watch blitzball."

"I watched while I was sitting with Bahamut."

"And now you're a fan of the game?" he asked with doubt.

"No. But I can appreciate the difficulty of moving under water like that. After all, Koji is a blitz player, too. He's on the team for his last year of required schooling, but he really has his heart set on going professional with it. I don't like the sport, but I like him. So, I'm not going to stand in his way."

Shuyin nodded in quiet agreement with a tired smile. "I guess Bahamut got interested in blitzball after watching Koji's games, then."

"No, he doesn't really … connect … with Koji that well. I don't know why he preferred to see the Abes play instead of asking to go to one of Koji's games."

"Maybe it's something to do with the grand spectacle of the professional leagues."

"Maybe."

"And what about you? Are you still in school?" he asked, curious.

"I went to school at the temple, but I've already finished."

"The temple? You're a ..."

"Summoner," she answered with a pleasant nod.

Shuyin was impressed. "Wow. You work with dead people. That's … kinda gross, actually."

Lenne laughed lightly again. "Well, at least I'm not slimy."

"I thought all summoners were old geezers. Now I kinda wish I'd chosen to stay at the temple's boarding school." He grinned playfully. "Doesn't it creep you out, though? Working with the dead?"

"Death is just another part of life." She shrugged as if it were nothing. "But sometimes restless souls become tainted with their own sorrow and hate. They turn into fiends, and then they become a problem for the living. Sometimes a tainted soul must be _forced_ to leave this world for the Farplane before it can rest in peace. Before High Summoner Yu Yevon established his temples to teach the Rites of the Sending, our only defense was to physically fight them. But with those kinds of encounters, they sometimes come back, and more people get hurt. It's better to help the dead peacefully find their rest, … _before_ they can harm the living, ne?" To her, it was only logical.

Shuyin grew quiet as they crossed toward the end of the large bridge. "I remember watching them send my mom. All those pyreflies breaking apart and floating away to the Farplane while her body sank into the ocean ..."

Lenne nodded with respect toward his lost mother. "Well, at least watching a sending isn't as strange as watching someone call the dead back to life."

He stopped and blinked at her. "You're kidding, right? They can do that now?"

"Some summoners with a strong sensitivity to the spirit world can draw pyreflies from the plane of magic and use it to temporarily revive the souls of the dead. And if the summoner is very strong, he can draw enough pyreflies together to actually resurrect the soul again, ... as an aeon."

He made a face. "What's an ... aeon?"

"It comes from an old word from Earth - 'eon'. It means 'forever'. They're immortal, like all spirits, but they're untainted with vengeance. They're _good_ fiends, if you like. Aeons can be banished like ordinary fiends," she explained, "but once an aeon has been created, other summoners can ask for its aid again and again. Aeons can help summoners defeat the tainted fiends to send them to the Farplane."

"And here I thought summoners were only good for summoning white magic, sending dead people, and telling us to sit up straight during prayers." Shuyin changed his expression and voice to mimic that of an old priest. "Ah, there are many mysteries in magic you couldn't possibly understand, child. You are not a summoner. All you need to know is how to bow to Yevon. He is your god."

Lenne chuckled at his imitation, even if his comments bordered on sacrilege. "Well, he _is _capable of bringing the dead back to life. Not many people can claim such miracles. But that's why he's built temples all over Spira - to train new summoners so more souls can be put to rest in a peaceful manner. They say he started as a precocious child with strong magic - just like Bahamut. The souls of the dead always answer Bahamut's call. I saw him draw pyreflies over a butterfly once to bring it back for a moment, even though he was very young. If Bahamut's summoning magic grows with him, someday he might rival High Summoner Yevon himself. I'm very proud of him, but concerned for him as well, I guess. That's why I'm thankful that you were able to make him laugh and feel like he was included in something for once." She paused for a moment as she continued to stroll beside him. "Would you mind ... continuing to speak to him at the games like that? Even if I take him to other games now, they won't mean half as much as your invitation did. My parents divorced right after he was born, and we don't really have a relationship with our father. As Bahamut gets older, having a friend like you around to look up to, would really mean a lot to him, ... I think."

Shuyin was flattered, but shook his head with doubt. "I … really don't think I'm the best role model for anyone. And he seems like a good kid. Me? Not so much."

"You don't have to babysit him or anything like that," she quickly added, interpreting his response as an aversion to the idea of being responsible for the boy in some way. "Just ... keep talking to him, and I'll try harder to make time to bring him to more games, like I promised."

He shook his head again. "I don't think my getting further involved with you guys would be a good idea. I'd better be going home. It was nice talking to you, though, ... Lenne." Moving away from her, Shuyin left the bridge and road for the shoulder, then strode up a hill that overlooked the harbor in one direction and the rest of the city toward Mt. Gagazet in the other. There, he dropped his duffle bag on the ground and sat down in the dark, cool grass to stretch out with his hands behind his head. But as he lifted one ankle up and over the opposite knee to stretch a sore muscle, the singer came back into his view, standing over him.

"I'm not going to be dismissed that easily," she stated, hands on hips. "Listen, you don't have to give him special treatment like last time. I understand taking him through the locker room was against regulations. But would it be so hard to take five minutes to acknowledge him before the game? You go outside to sign autographs at that time anyway."

"But when I talk to him now, I'll think of you. And I can't be thinking of you, okay?"

"This has nothing to do with me."

Shuyin pushed himself up on one elbow to face her. "It does now."

"Because of Koji?" she guessed.

"Bahamut should be doing the 'big brother' thing with him, instead of me. Koji is already very resentful of me, and if I get involved, he will absolutely hate me. It would only make him think I'm making a move on you behind his back. There's too much resentment between us for me to be anywhere near you, or your brother."

"So my brother should expect a cold shoulder from you at the next game?"

Shuyin shook his head in pathetic amusement as he looked at the ground. "No guilt trip there."

Lenne crouched beside him. "That's how he'll interpret your silence after being so friendly before - especially if he sees you being friendly with other fans."

"I'm not going to ignore your brother, okay? If he's out there, I'll talk to him. But no more concerts or notes or … anything like that. Just, … an occasional game at the stadium."

"Good. That's all I ask." She smiled, knowing that would have to do. With that settled, Lenne paused and looked around at their location, then sat down in the grass beside him. "Interesting place to stop for the night. Do you live in a hole in the ground?"

Shuyin smirked and lay back on the grass again. "I live on the docks in a houseboat, but I usually stop here for a few minutes on my way home. Helps me sleep better if I can relax under the stars for a few minutes."

"A houseboat? I've never known anyone who lived on one of those. Can I see it?"

He was hesitant. "I guess, but ... "

"But …," she copied the undecided way that he said it.

"Well, it _is _where I live."

"Are you afraid I'm going to sneak over in the middle of the night and summon an aeon down on you?"

He was amused. "Yes. That's exactly what keeps me awake at night - an unhealthy fear of summoners and their creepy dead friends."

Lenne laughed lightly and faced the snow-covered mountain beyond the city. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she flexed the toes of her boots up with a light tapping motion. "This is actually a very pretty spot. I never paid much attention to it before. I used to live by the harbor, too, you know. My mother and Bahamut live just down that way about five blocks inland. I live on the mainland now, in the middle of everything, but it's so much more relaxed out at this end."

Shuyin was skeptical. "I've lived at the harbor all my life, but I don't remember seeing you in the neighborhood before."

"We probably would have gone to school together, if I hadn't gone to the temple instead."

"Yeah, I could've thrown rubber snakes in your face and stuff."

"In other words, you were a brat?" She leaned back on her hands.

"Well, no, okay, maybe a little." He gave a guilty shrug. "I used to get a little wound up as a kid, but I liked coming to this place because it calmed me down. I used to stare at Mt. Gagazet and try to see where our camp site was. Then I'd count the stars until I got sleepy. Guess I still need it all these years later, even when I'm dead tired like tonight."

"You used to camp on Gagazet? In all that snow?"

"There's a hot spring up there. The ronso keep it a secret, but my old man sure knew about it. He used to take us camping up there all the time. We'd freeze in the snow and then run into the hot spring to warm up, which would make us _even colder_ when we ran back out into the snow. So, of course, we'd have to run back into the hot spring."

Lenne chuckled lightly trying to imagine it. "Perhaps you should have just set up a tent over the hot springs."

"Are you kidding? Half the fun of being up there was digging out after a big snowfall. I remember once when I was about three, the snowfall overnight was nearly up to my chest. My old man was trying to dig out our campsite, and I kept trying to jump on his snow shovel for a ride - because I did stupid stuff like that when I was little. So, he picked me up and threw me into the huge pile of snow that he'd been stacking. Fwoomp!" With an animated gesture, he demonstrated being tossed and buried in a deep snow mound. "Swallowed me whole." He chuckled at the memory. "But it kept me out of his hair for a few minutes."

Lenne laughed with him and the way he told his tale. "Only a few minutes? But now that you're older, you've outgrown the urge to do stupid stuff, … except when it comes to drawing spanking monkeys on notes to people you don't know."

"Okay, so I still do stupid stuff on occasion."

"Jecht sounds like he must have been an interesting person. Do you miss him?"

He shrugged. "If he had always been like that, I might, but he was a lot more difficult to be around than most people believe. He had a bad temper and drank too much. He always made fun of me because I wasn't as good as him. Even now that he's gone, I'm nothing more than Jecht Jr. to most people. I'm expected to play ball like him, even though I'm Shuyin. I guess that's why it's easier for me to go by Tidus in the pool. It's his name for me, but at least it's not _his__ name_. I like to think Tidus is the son he wished he could have had, … or the person I wish I could be." He was quiet for a moment.

Lenne was surprised at how openly he was speaking to her, considering they'd just met. "Oh, I don't know. This Shuyin character doesn't seem all that bad. He writes awful poetry, but I think he probably has a good heart, based on what I've met so far." She smiled and gave his chest a pat.

"Are you really going to talk about me in third person when I'm right here? Really?"

Lenne chuckled. "Only the juicy gossip parts."

"Hm, … juicy is usually bad."

"But even Jecht had good attributes in spite of the bad, right?"

"I guess," he shrugged. "I mean _when_ he was fun, he was a blast. But when he was angry all you could do was get out of his way, and I had to spend too much time getting out of his way, … or trying to get out from under his shadow. So, I mostly just stay mad at him." He looked at her, surprised she was listening to his drivel.

"None of us are perfect, Shuyin. We are all capable of doing good and bad things."

He decided to change his tone before the conversation could go any deeper. "_You_ wouldn't have jumped out of his way though. The way you slammed me for three little notes, I can only imagine what you would have come back at him with. You would have smacked him around with one of those aeons, right?"

She was humored at her own overreaction regarding the notes. "You had no right to talk to me that way, and I thought you were using my brother to try to meet me. Some people aren't above doing that, you know." She rested her chin in her fists with her elbows on her knees, and she tapped the toe of her boot lightly on the grass watching it spring back every time she mashed it.

"I know." Shuyin couldn't help but think of how Koji used Kaila and Birana toward his own goals last spring, and he wondered if his childhood friend was using Lenne now for similar reasons. As he studied the singer's profile beneath the moonlight, he found himself wondering how long she and Koji had been seeing each other, and if they were serious in their relationship. Then he felt bad for letting his mind wander. He decided he should leave.

Sitting up, he grabbed his duffle bag. "Well, that's enough stars for one night." He started to stand, but then fell back with a wince and favored his right foot. "Ouch-ch-ch-ch!"

"Did you hurt yourself? I can summon white magic, you know. I could -"

"No, it's nothing." He waved off her offer. "My foot fell asleep sitting with it propped on my knee at that angle."

A slow smirk curled the corner of her lips. "Well, I can fix that, too, if you like?"

"It's no big deal. Really. I can just give it a few minutes before trying to stand."

She took his ankle and gently squeezed around the bones, as if feeling for an injury. "Does it hurt when I do this?" she asked, tapping one side of his athletic shoe.

He sucked air through his teeth and tried to pull his foot away, but she refused to release it that easily.

"Hold still. I'm not done yet." She tugged the ankle to straighten his leg back out. "What about when I do this?" She tapped the other side of his shoe.

"Yes, it hurts!" Shuyin winced and reflexively tried to pull away again.

She still held firmly to the ankle. "What about now?" She repeated the action, unable to keep from snickering any more.

"You're doing that on purpose!" he finally realized.

Since she had already milked the stinging sensation for as much as it was worth, Lenne released his ankle and laughed that he had been so gullible for her prank.

"You are one sadistic summoner." He tested his foot on solid ground once more, then stood. "You're one of those healers that doesn't mind ripping off hair and skin with bandages, aren't you? You know - the ones that tell you you're going to feel a _little pinch_ before they jab you with a big, fat needle?"

She stood beside him, still laughing. "I can't believe you fell for that!"

Shuyin shook his head in embarrassment, but he enjoyed seeing her laugh, even if it had been at his expense. Lenne was … fun. She was beautiful, intelligent, determined, and sincere, as well. But she was Koji's girl - not just someone else's girl - _Koji's_. "Yeah, I fell ... completely," he reluctantly admitted, but he wasn't talking about her joke.

"Aww, you're such a good sport," she consoled him with a light hug.

He tolerated the friendly hug, but then drew an uneasy breath and shifted his duffle bag to his shoulder. "I'd better head home now."

"To the houseboat? I promise I'll leave all my creepy dead friends behind."

He stopped and faced her. "Why are you so interested in seeing my houseboat? You can walk by the harbor any day and see dozens of them."

"I can't tell which ones are lived in and which ones are for recreation. Like I said, I've never known anyone who actually lived in one before. I think it's kind of quaint, you know? Looks like it would be fun, but at the same time, I can't imagine it."

Shuyin smiled at her enthusiasm. He knew he should have made up some excuse to keep telling her no, but he was tired, and he simply had no willpower left. Finally, mildly humored, he caved in with a sigh. "Fine, you can come see the houseboat."

Lenne grinned and scurried to his side, then followed him down the hill toward the harbor.

))((

"Well, ... here we are," he announced as they came to the pier to where the houseboat was docked.

Lenne eagerly boarded the deck, but took her time looking around, from one side of the boat to the other. "This is wonderful. How many rooms does it have?"

"Living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bath and half-bath, engine room, cabin. They're all small, though. And it's always been right here, except when my old man took it fishing. Someday when I earn enough gil, I'll trade it in for one of those really ritzy skyline apartments overlooking the bay, ... but for now it's better than a boarding school."

"Why would you want to do that? This is perfect - small and cozy." She went to the rail, but then turned to face him. "That's twice that you mentioned boarding school. Koji said you became a ward of the temple after your mother died, and I thought you looked younger than the rest of the team, but … how old are you, exactly?"

"Soon to be seventeen."

"Then, you're almost a legal adult by Zanarkand standards, and they'll have to give you full rights of ownership to this place, right?"

"Next week."

"You must be excited."

"Impatient is probably the better word," he agreed with a small smile.

She nodded to herself as she continued walking slowly around the deck and up to the upper level to gaze out over the black water against the sparkling, indigo sky. Not having to hide from anyone out here, she removed her hat. Her hair cascaded down her back once more, and the night breeze lifted a few strands in ghostly wisps. Smiling at how peaceful it was, she rubbed a chill from her arms and looked down at the moonlight on the water. "I'll bet those gentle waves make a good lullaby at night. This is nice, Shuyin. Once they hand over ownership, don't ever trade it for an apartment in the central portion of the city. You'll regret leaving this place. Trust me."

As Lenne took in the view of the Zanarkand shore at night, Shuyin resisted the urge to stand near enough to chase away that chill. It did feel peaceful here. He wondered why he never noticed it before. It was probably because, until now, the houseboat just felt … empty. Or maybe it was something more. No, it was definitely something more. Climbing the steps to the upper deck, he drew close to her shoulder. He wanted to invite her to stay for a while, but he made himself say something completely different. "I think ... you should go."

Lenne turned to face him. She seemed to be trying to think of something else to say, but after a moment she gave up and nodded in agreement with a smile. "Goodnight, then. Thanks again ... about my brother. And the offer to come to another concert is still open, if you want it."

He accepted that. Then he watched her descend the stairs and twist her hair back under her hat as she left the pier, without looking back. As the singer starlet walked home alone, Shuyin sighed and went back down to his lower deck. He let his head thud heavily against the door for a moment, but then unlocked it and let himself inside.


	11. Chapter 11: Regrets

Chapter 11: Regrets

The Abes first loss of the season came a week later at the hands of the Duggles. Spirits were low as the team left the stadium, but none were lower than Shuyin's. He kept mentally reviewing his plays, wondering if there was anything he could have done differently to change the outcome. He had hoped to celebrate a victory for his birthday, not a disappointing loss. Both teams had played hard and well. The Duggles just happened to hustle a little better this time.

Freshly showered with duffle bag packed and ready to go, Shuyin hit the exit doors, and walked out into the cool night to find a handful of Abes fans waiting for autographs. There were always a few stragglers after the games, but they always numbered less than the pre-game gathering, and tonight they numbered even less due to the loss. Still, the ones that gathered were upbeat and started singing "Happy Birthday" as soon as he appeared. Stunned, but greatly amused, he wondered how in the world they knew, … until he spotted Lenne and Bahamut among them. As they continued to sing, she stepped forward, jiggled a wrapped box, and placed it into her little brother's hands. Then, the little gathering hooted and applauded, congratulating him.

Shuyin nodded with mild embarrassment, but bowed in gratitude for everyone's efforts. "Aw, thanks, but … you shouldn't have."

"You played well, even if it was a loss." Bahamut stepped forward to give him the gift.

The blitz player grinned and gave the box a light shake.

"Open it! Open it!" someone from the small gathering called out.

"Now? I don't know," he answered with caution. "It might be a prank gift, like those things that jump out of the box into your face." Everyone laughed.

"Why in the world would we give you something like that?" the boy asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because your sister hit my foot _multiple times_ after I told her it fell asleep."

"I promise it won't jump at you," Lenne inserted.

Shuyin's eyes narrowed in skepticism, but then shifted his duffle bag on his shoulder to free both hands and open the wrapped box. "I'm not ruling it out. What do you think, kid? Is she telling the truth?"

Bahamut smiled. "It's fragile. It won't jump."

"So, according to the official records, you're no longer a ward of the temple, right?" Lenne asked. "You must be happy about that."

"All legal documents have been officially transferred to my name," Shuyin answered with pride.

"Woo hoo! Those bills are all yours!"

"That's right. I'm a man now, and I have the dock rent payments to prove it." He gave her a playful wink, but then his expression changed to a questioning one as he lifted a memory sphere from the box.

"It's the concert that you missed," she explained. "I got a copy from a guy on our light crew. It was Bahamut's idea. This way, you can see the concert whenever you want without ... complications."

Complications … She meant Koji. Still, this was an offer to help him avoid another uncomfortable meeting with him.

"Do you like it?" the boy asked.

"The only way I could like it more, is if it was the real thing." Very pleased with his gift, Shuyin tucked it safely back into the box. "Thanks, both of you. I'll watch it tonight when I go home."

The other fans in the small gathering offered a few more congratulatory remarks and requested some delayed autographs. Shuyin passed the box to Bahamut as he signed and chatted with them, until the gathering thinned to go their own way. Then, he took his gift box back and tucked it into his duffle bag.

"What kind of birthday cake do you have?" Bahamut asked.

Lenne elbowed him. "That's a little rude, ne?"

"I didn't have any yet. I was on my way to order a slice at the Waterwall in the Neon District with the rest of the team." He knew that the logical thing to do now was to wish them goodnight and walk away, but it didn't seem right. "Would you ... like to come?"

Bahamut looked to Lenne. "Cake," he hinted with a smile.

"Well, ...if you're sure you don't mind."

Shuyin shrugged. "The rest of the team will be there and probably some other Abes fans, too. We usually go there after the games. I just wish we'd won so I'd feel more like celebrating." He led them away from the stadium toward the floating bridge and the harbor.

She fell into step with him and slipped an arm across her brother's shoulders as they walked. "You've only lost one game so far. That's a pretty good record out of twelve played, I think."

"So, now you're tracking our stats?"

"The kid here gave me an earful of statistics, during the game. That's the only one I actually understood and remembered," she answered in mild apology. "I'm sorry, but I just can't get into it. I don't see the point of risking bodily harm to kick a ball into a net. What purpose does it serve?" Lenne allowed him his inevitable frown at her opinion of his profession, but then chuckled as he did so.

"Well, all you do is sing. What purpose does that serve?" he retorted.

"Songs are poetry put to music." She smiled reflecting on that. "Words can help us internalize and sympathize with each other's experiences and feelings."

"Oh, please." He rolled his eyes. "Your profession is just as entertainment-based as mine. Mine's just more difficult."

"Oh really. I'd like to see you try dancing around on that stage for two hours. It's not as easy as it looks, you know."

"I play ball underwater for two hours. I think I can handle dancing on a stage for that long."

She chuckled at his boast. "Ah, but can you do it while singing?"

"Okay, you got me there," he conceded with a laugh. "I can't sing worth crap."

"You're right about one thing, though - we're both essentially entertainers. I guess I've just always felt entertainment should be balanced with another purpose to prevent it from becoming nothing more than a self-indulgent popularity contest, you know? The entertainment business is built on other people's moods and opinions - and those are prone to frequent change. When the ratings and sales go down, entertainers often self-destruct if they have no other purpose to give them that high outside of being adored. I guess that sounds strange coming from someone like me, doesn't it?"

"Not really. My dad complained a lot about his contract obligations before he disappeared. Maybe waning stats and popularity had something to do with why he was being pushed so hard. And maybe that had something to do with his drinking. Since I saw him burn out, I don't want to end up like that, you know?"

"That's why when I'm not singing I'm sending the dead to the Farplane and fighting fiends. Summoning is my primary purpose. That's what I'll be doing when I'm wrinkled and gray, long after my songs have become forgotten and outdated. What do you plan to do when you retire from blitzball?" she asked, genuinely curious.

He snorted with humored offense. "I've just turned seventeen, and you're already retiring me from the game. I wasn't even supposed to start playing until now."

"Okay, then. Let me rephrase that. What would your second choice profession be? You're … obviously very physically fit." Lenne smiled. "I could see you as a guardian or something."

Shuyin smirked at her subtle nod toward his physique, but was seriously doubtful beyond that. "Me … a guardian ..."

"Why not? Summoners are always in need of guardians to defend them while they're casting magic, and most of our spells are defensive."

"Well, my old man had a sword lying around in the closet. I suppose I should dig it out and learn how to handle it. But as a summoner, aren't you supposed to be defending me? You're the expert, so I should be able to hide behind you and let you do all the fighting." He side-stepped behind her. "Hm, I'm taller than you, though. We might have a problem with head shots."

The corners of her lips slowly curled. "And if I move out of the way?" She side-stepped as they walked, so that she was beside him again instead of in front of him.

"Well, that would be even more sadistic than hitting my foot when it fell asleep. You have a definite mean streak in you."

"Just saying I'd hate to see anything bad happen to you if the only thing you know how to defend is a ball."

"Wait, that means you're actually worried about me, right? And if you're worried about me, then maybe you secretly enjoyed my poetry and monkey doodles, eh?" He gave her a playful nudge.

She laughed lightly and shook her head. "No. The monkey doodle was so not happening."

"You're smiling, though. I think you liked them," he said, teasing.

"I'm smiling because I think you'd make a great guardian. Zanarkand needs more of them, especially now with what's happening in Bevelle." The smile faded with a sigh, and Lenne's brows rose with worry. "The Founders are getting very nervous about the way that Yevon's popularity has spread throughout Spira, so they're bumping up the restrictions on magic. Bevelle is choking off the rights of Zanarkand's ambassadors in Yevon's temple there."

He shrugged and came to a stop at the public transport station, where he popped a fist against the large call button. "Why should I care what Bevelle chokes on?"

"After all this time, the Founders still want to reclaim Spira and take her back to Earth to scrap the whole colony project. They point to the increasing number of fiends as evidence that the use of alien technology and magic has gone too far. If they can convince Bevelle to cut off relations with Yevon, without having reached an agreement over the issues involving restrictions, Bevelle could convince the rest of Spira to break off ties with us, too. And if that happens, Zanarkand could become a political target."

"What could Bevelle possibly do to Zanarkand? We're the biggest and most advanced machina city on Spira. Plus we've got Yevon and all his _multi-talented_ summoners," he added, gesturing to her.

Lenne saw through the flattery, but appreciated it all the same. "They could block our trade with the rest of Spira. They could place tolls on our only passage through the mountains, or increase taxes for using their docks. That could mean your docking rent increases down at the harbor, as well."

"Well, that would suck."

"And High Summoner Yevon announced yesterday that all of the city's guardians and summoners should be ready to defend it. He may draft people who are physically capable of helping build an army. If so, that would probably include us."

"You mean I might have to fight in a battle because people that I don't even know disagree on something that I don't even care about? That would really suck."

"Yeah, that would really, really suck, Shuyin," she sympathetically agreed.

The nearly invisible train slid down the rail with a hiss, and the doors popped open. Shuyin boarded the "snake" and grabbed a glowing, blue side-rail. Bahamut and Lenne followed him onto the platform, but they were immediately crushed by about forty other people cramming into their compartment, who shifted and vied for standing space or seats. Shuyin was reminded of why he hated taking this thing anywhere at certain times of the day and preferred to walk when possible, but in this case he was pressed up against Lenne, so he wasn't going to complain. The doors hissed shut, and the tube whisked them around the harbor and over the water to the mainland.

The transport's brakes activated and jerked back slightly due to its momentum. Lenne stumbled against him and her brother, nearly squishing the boy between them. "Oops! Sorry."

Shuyin's eyes narrowed on her. "Did you just grab my butt?"

"_What? No._"

"Well, someone did." He frowned accusingly at the other people near enough to do so.

Lenne shook her head in amusement. "Unbelievable. I'm talking about the threat of martial order being placed on us, and you're worried about someone grabbing your butt."

"My concern is more immediate." Shuyin defended his distraction from the more serious conversation. "You never know whether those kinds of encounters are accidental or on purpose."

Lenne leaned closer. "I think it was the woman to your left. She looks pretty pleased with herself, don't you think?"

Shuyin immediately checked the expression of the woman to his left, but thought she looked more like she was about to fall asleep. He giggled at the bizarre suggestion, then whispered back in complaint. "She's old enough to be my grandmother. Stop messing with my head."

"She looks like a raging blitzball fanatic to me."

"Are you sure she's not one of your aeons?"

Lenne muffled a laugh, but gave him a light swat for the comment.

"Did you just hit me? First my foot, now my arm ... All that talk about blitzball being too violent, and then you turn around and hit me," he complained, making her laugh more.

When the transport came to a stop, its doors opened with another hiss. The Neon District was colorful and bright as usual that night, and it was almost as crowded as the transport rail. Once everyone was back on the sidewalk, they made their way through the passers-by toward the Waterwall sports bar and restaurant.

She hooked his arm and apologetically patted it. "I didn't know you were so sensitive, especially in light of all those tackles you endured in the game. Do you need a cure spell to fix it?"

"Not if it's going to be anything like how you fixed my foot." Laughing, he pulled away from her and tried to block her hands when she tried to grasp his arm again. "Don't even touch me!"

Laughing as well, Lenne kissed her hand, then tapped it to his arm. "There. All better."

"What kind of sorry, second-hand kiss is that?"

"The only kind you're going to get for bad melodrama."

Shuyin told himself to quit while he was ahead. Flirting with Koji's girlfriend was bad - very bad.. "Well, ... what do I have to do to get a better one?"

Lenne gave him a wry side-glance. "That depends on how much better you want."

"Should I be hearing this?" Bahamut spoke up, reminding them he was there.

Shuyin came to a stop outside of the restaurant they were heading toward and placed both hands over the boy's ears. "How many degrees of 'better' are we talking about?"

Bahamut giggled at Shuyin's animated way of handling the situation and tried pulling his hands away from his ears.

Lenne bit her lip to keep from grinning too broadly. "How about a happy birthday kiss? Will that do?"

"Maybe. What's it like?"

She lifted her hand to one cheek and kissed him on the other, then drew back with a smile and used her thumb to brush away the lipstick smudge left behind.

It was just a friendly little peck, but it left a chill down his spine feeling her breath against his ear. In spite of that, he managed to continue looking utterly unimpressed. "Well, that was better, but it reminded me of something my mother would do."

Lenne drew back in open-mouthed shock. "I do _not_ kiss like your mother!"

"That was a motherly kiss. Now I'm going to have this mental association with the two of you that's _really_ not working for me." He moved Bahamut through the revolving door and continued to guide him into the restaurant keeping his hands over the boy's ears. Bahamut continued to giggle at being "driven" to their table in that manner. "Dinner and dessert are on me since I invited you, okay? I insist."

Lenne followed with a wry grin. "So, a birthday kiss has to be something your mother wouldn't do? What exactly did you have in mind?"

Shuyin started to answer as he "parked" Bahamut at one of the chairs, but then shut his mouth and shook his head. "You know what? I'm quitting this conversation before I say or do something I _know_ I'll regret."

"Your ears are turning red." She poked a finger through the wisps of damp hair at his temple. "Wow. A real blush. I think you'd better explain."

"No, you really don't want to know what I'm thinking right now. Trust me."

She placed her hands on her hips. "Is it _that_ bad?"

"_No_, it's just … It's like …" Shuyin reminded himself that Lenne was with Koji. He told himself to step away from the pretty singer and no one would get hurt. Then, he leaned close, intending to kiss her, but paused, as if in doubt or asking permission. When she didn't act shocked, he touched his fingertips to her face and brushed his lips over hers, soft and light as if she were a fragile thing he was afraid he might break. When she still didn't push him away, he became braver, pressing closer and allowing a hint of desire to relax his underlying anxiety about the defiant impulse. But when he drew back, he immediately felt a pang of guilt for having crossed that boundary line. "Something like that," he added, as if the demonstration was a reasonable excuse for what he just did.

When Lenne opened her eyes, she was at a loss for words.

Shuyin was stunned at his own audacity for the first time in his life, perhaps.

"Well, … that … that was … definitely better than a motherly ... kiss," she quietly commented, as she found her voice once more.

His brows rose in apology. "I … shouldn't have done that."

"It wasn't - no, I mean it was - it's ..." Lenne shook her head in frustration as chaotic thoughts escaped her.

"It won't happen again. You have my word." His head dipped in deference to both her and Koji where further apology or explanation failed him.

She frowned at being unexpectedly flustered, but then studied his expression. "Do you … regret doing it? Or do you regret that it was inappropriate?"

Shuyin had to think about her odd question for a minute before answering. Her eyes seemed to see right through his soul in a manner that made his heartbeat catch in his throat. "I regret that I didn't meet you sooner." Perhaps it wasn't the right answer, but it was an honest one. Ashamed, he made himself back away from her.

He half-expected her to make up some excuse to leave now, but Lenne seated herself, spread her napkin in her lap, and picked up the menu. Bahamut had watched the whole exchange without stirring or saying a word, but when his sister sat down and picked up her menu, he did the same.

Shuyin set his duffle bag on the floor by the chair opposite hers. Sitting down, he opened his own menu and scanned the options, but his mind wasn't on food anymore.

"That wasn't a very smart thing to do, you know," Bahamut finally spoke to him, breaking the awkward silence.

Shuyin gave the boy a tight-lipped glance for his unwelcome observation. "I'm aware of that."

"You just kissed her in front of the whole restaurant. Did you forget where we are? Or did you not care?"

Lenne lowered her menu, unable to believe this non-secretive conversation about her was going on in her presence.

"I wasn't thinking about the restaurant, okay?" Shuyin lowered his menu and tapped the number next to the meal he wished to order. The electronic menu then sent the order to the kitchen.

"So, you wanted to kiss her so bad that you forgot where you were? That was quite a risk, considering you're both famous and she's got a boyfriend. If she didn't like it, she might have slapped you, or made a scene to draw attention to it."

"Do we have to keep talking about this?"

The precocious boy smiled. "I think she liked it."

Lenne flushed in embarrassment and used her menu to pop the back of her little brother's head. "Keep your opinions to yourself and order your food."

Bahamut placed his order on the menu, then put it down and leaned on the table, chin in hands. But he smirked at Shuyin knowingly and he swung his feet under his chair.

Shuyin finally could take the awkwardness no more. "Excuse me. I'll be right back." He stood, placed his duffle bag in his chair, and headed toward the restrooms. Hitting the swinging door on the way in, he stopped at the sink and splashed a handful of cold water over his face to snap himself back to reality. Then, he looked in the mirror to see if he even recognized himself anymore.

))((

Lenne held her composure until the restroom door swung shut behind Shuyin. Then she groaned and dropped her head on the table behind her menu.

"You like him, don't you." Bahamut quietly observed.

"I like Koji," she corrected.

"Then, why did you kiss Shuyin?"

Lenne lifted her head from the table. "_He_ kissed _me_," she immediately displaced blame and touched the menu to place her order. Then, she collected all three menus and dropped them in the side pocket of the table for the waitress to retrieve when she brought the food.

"But if he did something you didn't want him to do, you would have told him no, right?"

"He was right there in my face with those beautiful blue eyes, okay? How could I say no to that?" she argued. "Oh, why'd he have to be so cute? And nice and funny and sincere," she complained with a pout. "He wasn't supposed to be like this! Either Koji was wrong about him, or I was stupid enough to fall for him in spite of the warnings."

"Then, you do like Shuyin?" he asked, swinging his feet under his chair.

"I barely know him."

"But you like him enough to want to know him."

"No, because that would upset Koji. If only there was some way to mend their friendship."

Bahamut shook his head at his sister's folly. "Even if they got along well, you'd have to choose between them. You can't have them both."

Lenne drew back with distaste. "I don't want them both. What kind of person do you think I am?"

"A person who is questioning if reaching for what she wants is worth the risk of losing what she already has. Someone will get hurt, but eventually you must choose."

She frowned at her brother. The kid was too intuitive for his own good sometimes. Removing her napkin from her lap and wadding it into a ball on the table, she stood and headed toward the men's room.

))((

Shuyin was drying his face in a brown paper towelette when Lenne entered the men's room and approached him at the sink. "What are you doing in here?" He looked around in surprise to make sure no one else was in there.

"Look, I don't want things to get more awkward than they already are, so I need to say something."

He sighed and pitched the towelette into the trash. "What's left to say? I told you it wasn't a good idea for me to be around you like this. But then you brought me a birthday present, and I invited you to dinner, and then I kissed you, and now here we are." He paused and made a face. "In the men's room, … of all places."

"I know. You told me to stay away, and I didn't listen," she agreed.

"And what kills me is I _knew_ better, but I did it anyway!" He sat on the edge of the sink and frowned at the floor.

"Exactly. I knew better, but I didn't walk away." Lenne moved closer to stand in front of him and meet his gaze. "What happened just now, … I'm as much to blame as you are."

"I have absolutely no excuses up my sleeve to clean this up when it hits the fan."

"I'm not going to tell Koji. And I know Bahamut won't tell him. If he finds out because someone else tells him, I'll take the blame."

"He won't believe you."

Lenne sighed knowing he was probably right. "Well, it's not like we can take it back. And, honestly, … I wouldn't want to."

He tilted his chin, unsure what she meant in saying that.

"It was a very nice kiss, Shuyin. And I'm okay with it. Really." She admitted with a small smile. "So, I don't want you hiding in here blaming yourself when you should be out there enjoying your birthday dinner."

The door to the men's room swung open again and Luperis entered, but then instantly stopped seeing the two of them at the sink together. "Woah! Okay! Never mind!" He turned around and walked back out.

Shuyin rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Great. Now I'm going to have to explain this to the rest of the team."

She chuckled. "Our dinners are probably waiting and getting cold. Let's just enjoy this, and … tomorrow will be a new day. Okay?"

"Okay," he agreed and straightened, grateful for her acceptance and forgiveness.

Lenne lead the way out and back to their table. Their meals had just been delivered, and Bahamut was already digging into his bowl. The boy glanced between them, but kept his thoughts to himself this time as he noisily slurped up his noodles.

Shuyin set his duffle bag back on the floor and sat down, ready to enjoy his meal. But upon seeing the plate, he made a face at one particular kind of mushroom sprinkled over his noodles and promptly used his chopsticks to lift them to the side of the plate. "Oh no, no, no ..."

She smirked at this peculiarity. "That's a mushroom dish. If you don't like mushrooms, why did you order them?"

"I don't like _those_ mushrooms. I like the others."

"What's the difference? A mushroom is a mushroom."

Shuyin took a bite of his noodles and dropped one of the banished mushrooms from his plate onto hers. "Okay then, you try it." He smirked and waited, ... expectantly.

Wondering what could be so bad about a little mushroom, she shrugged and picked it up with her chopsticks. But when a string of slime oozed off of it, she immediately put it back down. "I'll take your word for it."

He chuckled. "No, no fair. You have to taste it before you form an opinion."

Lenne shook her head and couldn't help but grin. "I wouldn't want it to spoil my appetizer."

Shuyin acknowledged her reference to his kiss, smiled to himself, and took another bite of his meal. "I won't even let those mushrooms in my house, much less on my plate."

Lenne nudged her little brother. "Did you know that Shuyin lives on a houseboat at the docks just a short distance from you and mom?" she asked before tasting her own dish.

The boy lit up with curiosity. "You live on a boat?"

Shuyin put down his chopsticks to open a straw and drop it into his drink. "Why does that fascinate people? It's just a boat."

"Can we see it?"

The blitzball player saw that request coming and knew it had the potential for making an already awkward evening even more awkward, but Lenne smiled and nodded that she was okay with it.


	12. Chapter 12: Wins and Losses

Chapter 12: Wins and Losses

Lenne's little brother walked around the deck of the houseboat and looked over the rail to gaze into the water's dark depths. Shuyin still didn't understand the fascination other people had with his home, but he supposed he never would since he'd seen it on a daily basis ever since he could remember. In fact, it looked rather antiquated to him. Still, if it gave the kid a thrill to visit a boat for a change of pace, he was happy to enable that. And it wasn't long before Bahamut found the fishing pole near the door and fingered the reel with curiosity. "You can use it if you want," Shuyin offered.

"I don't know how."

"I can show you. Got some bait right there in the cooler."

"Now? At night?"

"Sure. Fish get midnight munchies too, you know." He moved away from the central mast where he had been standing with Lenne and picked up the bait bucket, placing it and a small folding stool near the rail for the boy. Then, he opened the chest to show off his selections of bait and tackle. "Got topwater, minnow, crankbait, spinner bait, worm ... Let's try a worm."

Bahamut scrunched his nose in doubt. "What kind of fish would fall for this? The boat's presence here would be a sure sign of danger. And this isn't their natural food supply. With us being near the piers, that would actually be a safer place for the fish to search for bugs that would break the water's surface tension, if they do come out at night, … which seems unlikely."

Shuyin pressed his lips together in a thin line. "Stop analyzing it. Just put the bait on the hook." He flashed Lenne a glance as if to agree with her earlier statements about the boy being too serious for his own good.

Lenne laughed lightly and came closer to see what they were doing. "Ew, slimy." She winced as Shuyin plopped the worm into Bahamut's hands.

"It tickles," Bahamut told his big sister. "You want to hold it?"

"Ah, well, actually ..." Before she could politely decline the offer, the worm was deposited into her hand. Lenne squinted expecting … Well, she didn't know what she was expecting, but this wasn't so bad as what she anticipated. Lifting her other hand, she carefully cupped the creature to prevent it from falling. "It feels … fragile."

"Woah, a girl who can hold a worm without creeping out. You _are_ special," Shuyin jokingly commented.

"I passed the worm test, did I? Is that something I should be proud of?"

"Well, when you work with dead people a worm is nothing, right?"

Lenne grinned in response. "Living on the water … Camping in the snow ..." She carefully deposited the worm back into her brother's hand. "Most Zanarkand residents don't get opportunities for adventure like that. Do you ever wish you could move the boat to more open spaces and live beyond the city?"

Shuyin turned his attention back to the bait and showed a very reluctant Bahamut how to thread the worm onto the hook, but snorted in amusement at the idea. "Maybe if I weren't afraid of the bottom rusting out in the middle of the ocean." He shook his head. "Nah, I can't leave this place - not with the Abes and all. Besides, Zanarkand is the only home I've ever known. I may not be a guardian or a summoner, but in spite of what I said earlier, I would arm myself to the teeth to defend it if anything were to happen to it, … you know?"

She smiled because she felt the same way. "I know." Removing her hat, she let her hair fall down her shoulders and back, taking pleasure once more in being free of the simple disguise for a short while.

"Actually, I've been thinking about what you said earlier, … about being a guardian and all. Would I have to leave blitzball to train for something like that?"

"Depends on whether you're training for an official or voluntary position. Are you … seriously considering it?"

He shrugged indecisively. "I just remembered one of the guys on the team trains using a method that combines blitz skills with martial arts. I might ask him about it at our next practice."

Lenne was somewhat skeptical. "But you're doing it because you want to - not because of anything I said - right? Because if your heart isn't into it ..."

"Well, I'd be lying if I said your input didn't influence it, but you didn't talk me into doing something I have no interest in. He says the martial skills have improved his game, so I was going to ask him about it anyway at some point. If you hadn't said anything I'd be considering cross-training for my game only, rather than a possible dual purpose. And, actually, I remember seeing the com news about the Founders trying to force magical restrictions on Zanarkand. I just didn't realize it was such a big deal. But I guess it is, so maybe I _should_ learn to defend something other than a ball." With the lure ready, Shuyin flashed her a perfunctory smile, then took the rod and the boy to the side of the boat close to the pier.

"Okay, your tackle is ready," he told him. "Usually on the surf or out in the middle of the water, you have to flick the line and cast it out away from you, but I'm going to let you in on a secret about fishing around these docks. When the weather is hot like this, the fish like to come up at night, and they like to hide under the pier. So, often, you can drop the line straight down." He demonstrated first, then reeled the line back in and helped the boy hold the rod to do the drop himself. "Just like that. Then, you want to pull the line a little, … like this." He demonstrated again. "Because that makes it look like a little munchie swimming around."

"What kind of munchie? Fish and insects move differently in water and would be found at different depths. And how do you know which kind of fish will -"

"You know, skepticism and over-thinking have been known to travel through the line and actually cause worms to spazz with worry. Then the fish see the worm all spastic and start talking to each other about how fake it looks jerking around in the water like that. And before you know it, the fish have moved to another pier, and your worm ends up in therapy because it was on the hook all that time being stared at, rather than being quickly eaten."

Bahamut giggled at Shuyin's sarcastic warning. "That's not true."

"Worms don't come with an identity crisis, and the fish around here aren't picky eaters. Just drop the line, tweak it a little, and be patient. Trust me."

Lenne watched in silent amusement as the extroverted, instinct-driven blitzball player continued trying to stop the introverted, study-oriented boy from making the process more complicated than it truly was.

Finally, when Shuyin felt the kid was prepared enough to handle his first catch, he backed away to where she stood. "I'm surprised he didn't ask which species of bug the worm should try to be," he complained with a chuckle as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "You need to get him out of the house more often. Take him to the beach for a weekend. Take him camping, or something."

The singer lifted a brow. "Is that an offer? I'm sure he'd love it."

He smiled, somewhat chagrined at her repeated attempt to change his mind, but then turned away and sighed in frustration as he lifted himself to sit on top of the railing. "Why are you bringing that up again? I just proved tonight at dinner that I can't do personal stuff like this without getting … _personal_."

"And you don't want it to get personal because of Koji," she cited his former argument in a rather dejected manner.

"It's not what I want," he admitted. "It's just not my place."

Lenne smiled at his honesty, but then looked puzzled and slightly troubled as she moved to stand before him. "You know, … I've been doing a lot of thinking since I met you."

"Ominous-sounding combination ..."

"I met Koji through a friend who brought him backstage after one of my concerts. My first impression was that he was quiet, … handsome, ... nice. Since then I've learned that he's also a deep thinker - a bit of a poet, though he'd probably never admit that," she added with a hint of humor. "He's very passionate about his likes and dislikes, but rarely voices opinions about them - with the exception of blitzball."

"Yep. That sounds like Koji." Shuyin lowered his gaze to the deck and wondered why she was telling him this. He didn't want to hear it.

"But my favorite thing about him is how he makes me feel like a human being when the business of being an icon becomes surreal. I can be myself around him without having to be 'switched on' as a public spectacle. You're a lot like him in that respect. Its one of the reasons I feel okay talking to you like this. But what's really cool about you is that you're also a public spectacle, so you know what it's like for me. It's why you wanted me to call you by your name, rather than your persona, right?" She placed her hands on his knees and tried to read his expression.

He wanted to tell her he had been thinking the same thing about her, but instead he cast a glance toward the boy holding his fishing pole. No bites yet. "I … don't get where you're going with this."

Lenne's brows rose with worry. "I need to ask you something, and I need a sincere answer. I need to know why you and Koji are no longer friends."

"You said he already explained that."

"He told me why you argued, but … I don't know what to think anymore." She shook her head and folded her arms at her chest. "You are not the person he said you'd be, so I'm having a hard time understanding why he feels so resentful of you. I want to hear your side of the story."

His mouth twisted with doubt. "What did he say about me?"

She winced, wishing he hadn't asked, and debated whether or not to answer. "Do you want his exact words? Or the polite version?"

"Let me guess. I got all the attention in the sphere pool because I'm Jecht's son, and I played my dad's name to steal the spot on the Abes team. Therefore, I am the scum of the universe."

"Well, that did come up, but he said you were a real player outside of the pool, as well. He said you could have any girl you wanted, but you got mad at him when he became interested in the one girl that refused to date you. He also said you broke his sister's heart by leading her on, even though you were interested in someone else. And he warned me after the concert that you would flirt with me if I ever saw you again. He doesn't want me anywhere near you."

Shuyin shook his head in disgust. "Okay, I'll admit I'm a flirt - big surprise, right? I'll even plead guilty to liking more than one girl at the same time. But he's making it sound like I had a harem - which is hardly the case - and I never, _ever_ meant to hurt Kaila. Did he tell you he's the one who set me up with his sister, so that he could go behind my back for the girl I wanted to date? He's the one that engineered that disaster so that he could get a good word in with her dad - the owner of the Duggles."

Lenne closed her eyes and one of her hands closed into a fist, as if that sounded regrettably familiar. "Duggles … He so desperately wants a spot on that team."

"So he can face-off against me and the Abes, no doubt. He probably won't let that go until he wins against me. I hate to say it, but he may even be using you to get there somehow, like he did with Birana."

She frowned at his accusation. "Koji would never use my celebrity as a career move. I have no connections to blitzball, and he's often said he wished I wasn't famous."

"Well, he told me he hated living in my shadow. So why would he want to live in the shadow of a famous girlfriend, other than to use her as an arm ornament to get into celebrity circles? And if you don't believe his best friend on that matter, you can always ask his sister. This is why he doesn't want you hanging around me. It's not just jealousy; he's afraid I'll tell you how he uses people. I back away because I don't want to get involved, but considering what he did to me and Kaila, maybe he deserves to be paranoid about me hanging out with his girlfriend. Except, that would be using you to get back at him, and I don't play those kinds of games because I know how it feels to be used." Shuyin sighed and rubbed his face, wishing this topic would just go away. "Look, I don't want to start supposing whether or not Koji has hidden motives in dating you. You asked for a sincere discussion, so I'm telling you what I know. He's very competitive and hates being second best, … because of me. I never intentionally did anything to offend him, but I guess just being me was offensive enough. If he finds out you came here tonight … If he finds out we talked about this, or that I kissed you before dinner -"

"Why _did_ you kiss me, … really?"

He tried to think of a sophisticated, poetic answer, since she seemed to admire that quality in Koji, but only one answer came to mind. "I wanted to." He shrugged in defeat and lowered his gaze to the deck. "That's the lamest excuse ever, I know."

"Very lame," she quietly agreed, mildly amused. "But ... sincere. Sincerity wins."

Shuyin remembered her comment about not wanting to spoil her appetizer. "Wait. You said he warned you after the concert, but you've come to see me twice since then."

"I guess I needed to make up my own mind about you. I like Koji, … a lot. He's a sweet, wonderful guy. I was even beginning to think I loved him, until I met you and realized that while opposites attract, only common interests bond. Koji and I have nothing in common. We've been together for months now, and I'm still working at getting to know him. His only interest is his game. He doesn't care about my interests. He makes no effort toward getting to know my family. He has no desire to see the rest of Spira like I do. I couldn't even trust what he was saying about his best friend. What does that say about how we relate? I enjoy being with him, but … I just don't think we're a good fit. And I have more fun being with you."

Shuyin's brows drew together. "Don't say that. Now I'm going to get blamed for coming between you, even though I told you I didn't want to get involved."

"I'm not blaming you."

"He will!"

"It's _my choice_ to spend time with you, Shuyin. I am not a piece of property that Koji happens to own. Whether or not there's something better out there, I don't know. But I shouldn't have to stay in a relationship if I'm uncertain about it. That's not fair to him or me."

Shuyin grew quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Do you think there's ... something better out there?"

Lenne couldn't help but smile at the way he hesitantly hinted with that question. "Not to make assumptions, but … yeah. I think I'd rather be with someone who is curious about aeons, likes adventure, and tells really bad jokes."

He winced slightly. "They're not that bad, are they?"

"Well, not as bad as your poetry."

He still wasn't convinced. "You're sure you'd … rather be with me?"

She hated to admit it, but nodded in agreement. "Being with you … It just feels right."

Shuyin felt excited about that, but then felt ashamed that he felt excited. "Then, what do we do about it?"

Lenne sighed and realized there was no easy way to handle this situation. "It would probably be best if I just told Koji that it's not working for me. I'll try to let him down easy."

"Well, at least now he has a valid reason to hate me," he muttered.

She interlaced her fingers with his, paused a moment to admire his hands, then smiled up at him. "Does that mean I have a valid reason to ask for another birthday kiss?"

His lips pursed as he gave it some thought. "Well, it's my birthday, not yours. I should get to do the asking. Then again, your birthday kisses were kinda sad, so ..." With a mischievous glint in his eye, he gave her a warm smile and released one of her hands to touch her cheek. Though nothing had truly changed yet, he felt free to admire her in a whole new way now.

Lenne giggled lightly at his teasing. "Well, I guess I'll have to remedy my motherly impression, won't I?" she told him, rising on her toes to reach him in spite of his rail perch.

With the more intimate contact, guilt still nagged at the back of his mind. But he pushed those thoughts aside and let her tongue slip underneath his, as he tasted her kiss for several heartbeats.

"Shuyin! I think I got a bite!" Bahamut called over his shoulder.

The blitz player reluctantly looked past Lenne toward her brother and saw the end of the pole bowed toward the dark water. Shuyin groaned. "Bad timing, kid. Very bad timing." But, as Lenne laughed at his displeasure, he hopped down from the rail and stood behind the boy to show him how to work the catch as his father had done so many times with him. "Reel it in steady, but kinda loose. If it gets too tight, the line might snap. Keep it up! Pull and reel! That's it!" He leaned over the rail to check and help draw in the line. "Look at that! Woo hoo! Your first fish!" He drew the wildly flipping animal out of the water and held it up on the line for Bahamut to see.

The boy grinned at his accomplishment, but didn't seem to know what to do next.

"You have to dance around a little because you did it. Fish dance! Woo hoo!" He did his little victory dance to demonstrate. Bahamut was too shy to join him, so, Shuyin expertly unhooked the fish and held it by its open mouth. Then, he grabbed the hem of the boy's shirt and cinched it tight around his belly before dropping the fish into the shirt's neck. Bahamut laughed out loud and squirmed trying to avoid contact with the cold, wet fish. He tried pulling away from Shuyin, so the bottom of his shirt would open and the fish could drop out of it, but the blitz player stubbornly held it tight. "There you go! Fish dance!"

Lenne doubled with laughter at the spectacle, but then joined the silliness with them. "Woo hoo! Fish dance!"

))((

The next game for the Zanarkand Abes suffered a loss similar to the previous game, but with one difference. This time, the loss was Shuyin's fault. He made one judgment error that set the entire game into a tailspin for his team. His coach railed him for it, and his teammates were disgusted about it. Even fans were upset with him for the first time. It was his first experience with how fickle fame could be, going from the crest of the wave to the rip tide in one play.

After he had showered and changed into dry clothing, he exited the back rooms to find Lenne and Bahamut waiting for him among the game stragglers and hecklers. He and Lenne had been contacting or seeing each other daily since his birthday, and he was never more glad to see her than now. Choking back his anger at himself and ignoring the insulting shouts, he strode forward to meet her without a word to any autograph seekers this time.

"Do you want to go home tonight, instead of going out?" Lenne asked, placing her hands on his shoulders.

"No, I told Naya and Luperis I'd meet them at the Waterwall, but I'll probably go home early."

"Well, you did your best, and sometimes that's simply all a person can do." Lenne gave him a kiss and tried to smile.

"And sometimes you totally screw up because your best isn't good enough, and that's unacceptable. One more loss, and we slip from the top round of the Crystal Cup tournament." He led the way through the crowd and headed toward the floating bridge beyond the stadium.

Lenne rubbed his arm and slipped her hand into his as they walked. "It's just a game," she reminded him, trying to sound encouraging.

"To you, maybe. To me, it's my rent, my fuel, my food, ... everything!" he fussed. "If they cut me from the team because I can't score as many goals as my old man, then -"

"Shuyin." She silenced him with a stern tone and look. "If I hear one more word out of you comparing yourself to your dad, so help me, I will push you off of this bridge and you can swim home alone. He was not perfect, and neither are you. You made a mistake. It happens." Scolding done, her expression softened with worry over how hard he was on himself. "You can't go back and do it over again. Learn from your mistakes, but then move forward."

He sighed and drew her into his arms. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head against hers, so glad to have her there. Then, he drew back and took her hand. "Let's go get something to eat." He tried to smile and led the way to their favorite sports bar and restaurant.

In the diner, at their table, they picked up the menus and scanned for their favorites. "What's a ... flan flan?" Bahamut asked.

Lenne made a face. "Sounds like a dessert made out of fiends."

Bahamut made a face in agreement with her, but then shrugged and touched the selection anyway. He had been adventurous with holding worms and fishing recently, so ... why not see what a flan flan was.

"Did you talk to Koji yet?" Shuyin asked Lenne as he placed his order on the menu.

"No. He had another discouraging day today. He says there are no openings in any of Zanarkand's professional leagues, so he's considering looking elsewhere. Would you happen to know of any opportunities he might have missed? It would help him out a lot if you could put in a good word for him with someone."

"I don't know of any." Shuyin didn't want to expand on that answer. "But, ... it's been a week."

"I know. I need to say something soon because I can't be with him anymore without thinking of you. But I don't want to upset him and make things worse, you know? He's been so depressed as it is."

"So, this is Lenne?" Luperis approached the table and held out a hand to the singer. "I know he brought you to the locker room before, and there was that little meeting in the men's restroom that he won't talk about, but I didn't realize both of those ladies were you until he told us later who you were. Clever disguise." He chuckled and gave the bill of her puffy cap a light tap.

Shuyin smiled with slight pride. "Luperis is a big fan of yours. He's the one that introduced me to your music."

"Really? Outstanding. Nice to meet you." Lenne shook his hand, and then offered her hand to the female player beside him, as well. "And you are?"

"Oh, that's Naya. I don't think she's a fan of your music, but she's pretty cool, anyway." Shuyin gave his teammate an exaggerated wink.

"What are you talking about?" Naya gave his shoulder a light smack. "I love Lenne's music. You're the only one in the pool that had no clue who she was." The female blitz player chuckled and did her imitation of his little dance and voice. "Why is she going out with her guitarist when she could be going out with me? It's not the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean, baby."

Lenne muffled a laugh and looked to Shuyin, easily able to picture him saying and doing that.

"Thank you for that instant replay, Naya," he answered in embarrassment.

"That's what I'm here for." She patted his back.

"Trade autographs with you." Luperis jokingly switched napkins with Lenne.

Lenne chuckled and checked her little brother's expression. He was being quiet, as usual, but he was smiling and his feet were kicking happily under his chair. He was thrilled to be in the company of three of the Abes players. "No problem. You want to sit with us? We could put two tables together."

"We're good." Naya sat down beside the boy, while Luperis dragged in a chair from the table behind them. Turning the back of the chair toward the table, he straddled it and sat down, squeezing himself between Naya and Shuyin at the four-person table.

"Well, if it isn't the almighty Abes!" A man from the bar behind them turned around in his seat and held up a mostly empty glass to their honor. His speech was slurred, so it clearly wasn't his first glass for the evening. "Whooopie! The team that couldn't tell a venom shot if it kicked them up aside the head! When the Abes retired Zak, they lost the brains of the organization, they did. Haven't seen a game played that terrible since the first game after Jecht disappeared." The drunk stood and approached their table, ignoring their unhappy glares, to see Shuyin. "Speaking of _whom_, ... your new shooter isn't half the man that Zak or his father was. Did you not see that Toma was right under your nose for a pass, boy? Any idiot could have seen there was no way that shot was strong enough to score from halfway across the pool!"

Shuyin glanced to Lenne, then tried to explain. "Toma was behind me, and I was about to get crunched by a four-man tackle. It looked like the only way to keep the ball was to shoot it."

"Don't feed me that crap." The drunk waved his hand. "You work out your game strategies before you even enter the pool, so you should have known Toma was behind you to receive the pass. You just wanted to be a hot shot and try to make an impossible goal."

Shuyin frowned. "I looked for him, but I didn't see him. How much time do you think I had to make a decision before I was going to be tackled? If I didn't see him, I wasn't going to waste time looking for him and risk losing the ball."

"The kid doesn't have eyes in the back of his head," Naya added. "It was an honest mistake."

"No, but he's got a neck!" the drunk loudly complained. "He could have turned around to look behind him! He was right there!"

"Back off, man," Luperis calmly warned him. "You've had a little over the top tonight, and there's always next week."

"No, you back off! I had five thousand gil resting on that game, and that snot-nosed punk, sorry excuse for a right forward, bankrupted me!"

"Well, then you're an idiot for putting five thousand gil on a game," Shuyin retorted, irritated that this man was harassing him.

"What did you just call me, son? I can remember when you were no bigger than a blitzball yourself, when your dad brought you to Abes games. You used to cry any time someone looked at you the wrong way. What makes you think you can come in here and just own the show because your _daddy_ was a legend? It's probably because you were so whiny that he left you, and your mama slit her own throat."

In two seconds flat, Shuyin was on his chair, across the table, and down on the drunk man. He grabbed the man by the collar, slammed a fist into his sagging face, then spun and kicked the man's chest, sending him crashing into the table behind him. The table and all of its food spilled over and the people sitting around it cried out and jumped away from the disturbance.

Lenne gasped, stunned at what he had done. "Shuyin!" Beside her, Bahamut's eyes widened with fear. He'd never seen a real fight before.

"If you have a complaint about my game, I'll take your ass in the sphere pool any day! But leave my family out of it!" he snapped back as Lenne stood and reached for his arm to try and pull him back into his chair.

The drunken man pushed himself to stand and clutched his chest where he'd been kicked. "What are you trying to do? Kill me?" He grabbed a knife from the table and whipped it toward Shuyin, thinking it was necessary to defend himself in such a manner.

The blitz player dodged, but then realized who was behind him. "Lenne!" He turned, fearing for her safety, but she had already cast a magical shield around herself and her brother to deflect the weapon.

Shuyin growled under his breath and started to lunge at the drunk again, but Naya and Luperis caught the back of his shirt and hooked his arms to restrain him. "You better thank your lucky stars that knife didn't hit her!"

"He's threatening to kill me!" The drunken man loudly proclaimed to the whole restaurant, drawing attention to his plight.

"Knock it off, man, or you're going to end up in jail!" Luperis glared at their youngest team member. "Now, we're going to walk out of here without hitting anyone else, you understand?"

Naya moved between Shuyin and the drunken man, ready to intercept any more attacks from either of them.

Shuyin looked back over his shoulder toward Lenne and Bahamut and forced himself to calm down. Still furious at the personal jab the drunk had thrown at him, but ashamed of having lost control in front of them, he snapped free from Luperis and stormed out of the restaurant, alone.

"Um, ... put it on the tab for the Abes," Naya told the restaurant manager, who had come to gawk at the damage. She and Luperis followed Shuyin out of the place.

Lenne dropped her magic shield and hurried Bahamut out behind them.

Outside, Naya cornered Shuyin and shoved his shoulder so hard that it spun him around to make him face her. "What the hell is the matter with you?" The woman that had calmed his nerves before their first came now looked as if she was about to rip some internal organs out through his nose. "As long as you are a member of the Abes, you will not lose your cool with the fans like that! No matter how obnoxious they get, you keep your punches to yourself! Everything you did tonight is going to have to be shouldered by rest of the team! We're going to hit the news headlines with you. We're going to be docked to pay for your damages. And we're going to have to bow to that bastard in apology, when simply letting him speak his drunken opinions and then pointing him back to his drink would have sufficed!"

"Did you hear what he said? He threw a knife at me!"

"I don't care if he threw a grenade at you! You don't hit the fans!"

Shuyin fought to calm his hot blood and racing heart by pacing and steadying his short breath. Naya's anger surprised him, but everything she had said was right. He had blown it again - big time, this time. "I'm sorry, okay? ... I'm sorry."

"Damn right you're sorry," Luperis angrily agreed. The large, dark-skinned man placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "The big boys in the office are going to hear about this and lower the boom pretty hard tomorrow, but there's nothing you can do to fix it tonight. You're stressing over the top right now, so the best thing for you to do is go home and sleep it off."

Shuyin realized his teammates had saved his skin. He lowered his gaze in apology and finally nodded in silent agreement with them. Lenne came forward and wrapped her arms around him, laying her head against his chest. He could hear his angry heartbeat pounding in his head, but as she held him close, his breathing calmed and slowed. She was such a stabilizing force for him that he wondered how he had ever lived without her. Slipping an arm around her waist and placing a hand on Bahamut's shoulder, he left his teammates to walk home.


	13. Chapter 13: Tough Choices

Chapter 13: Tough Choices

When they arrived back at the houseboat, Shuyin went straight to the kitchen and grabbed an ice pack from the freezer for his throbbing hand. "I never realized the human jaw was so hard," he grumped and tried to flex his fingers.

Lenne sighed in sympathy and gave his hand a brief exam. "Well, nothing seems to be broken, but fracture is possible. Do you want me to …?"

"Nah, I … kinda deserve to feel this right now."

Bahamut sat down in a chair at the table. "I'm hungry."

"We left without dinner, didn't we." Lenne tapped her brother's shoulder. "Come on. Let's take you home and get you something to eat." As the boy stood, she gave the distraught blitz player a brief kiss. "I'll come by to check on you later, okay?"

He nodded and watched them leave. Then, he stood and took his ice pack with him down the short, narrow stairs to the boat's bathroom. There was barely enough room to turn around in the small cubical because of the large, deep soaking tub, but it had been Jecht's favorite amenity - other than his beers - when he was tired and sore after games. Now, following in his father's footsteps, Shuyin turned on the hot water and jets, hoping it would bring relief to him as well. He checked his hand once more as tub filled, then stripped down and climbed into the steaming, deep water. Letting his head fall back against the wall, he tried hard not to think about the consequences of tonight that would plague him tomorrow.

Sinking low until the water line came to his chin, he vaguely wondered if this was the kind of nonsense that drove his father to drink. Maybe Jecht had just given up one day and walked into the ocean to never come back. No, ... that was the kind of thinking that had taken his mother. His father wouldn't have quit life the way his mother did, … would he? Determined to not become a victim of his own thoughts and a drunken stranger's crass comments, Shuyin splashed some of the hot water on his face and tried to refocus on what he could do differently in the next game. If he could win the next game, everything would be better again.

About thirty minutes later, there was a knock at the houseboat's front door.

Reluctant to climb out of the soothing hot water, he turned off the jets, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around his waist. Heading up the short, narrow steps, he wondered who would be visiting at this hour of the night. The Zanarkand city guard, come to arrest him for assault charges? The drunk following him home to make more trouble? The coach and team big wigs come to fire him already? Steadying his nerves, he reached for the handle and pulled it open.

Lenne blinked at him in pleasant surprise. "Wow. The steamy-man-wrapped-in-nothing-but-a-towel-look really works for you. And to think most girls only get flowers and chocolates."

A hint of a sad smile touched his lips as he stepped aside to let her in.

"And yet you're passing up a perfectly good chance to flirt with that. Now I'm really concerned." She removed and set aside her shoes, walking past him and allowing him to close the door on the night bugs attracted to the interior light. But his lack of response worried her. "Have you already eaten? I can fix you something while you finish your bath."

He shook his head in discouragement. "I'm not very hungry." He hadn't been expecting her return, though. "You came back."

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"I thought you meant tomorrow."

"Why would I wait until tomorrow, if you're upset tonight?"

His expression turned into one of self-disgust. "I'm surprised you came back at all. I've never screwed up this bad before."

"I think that man's comments took all of us by surprise. Your reaction may not have been the best way to handle it, but it certainly was very understandable. And I think everyone who witnessed the incident would agree."

"Is your brother okay? I didn't mean to freak him out or anything."

"He's fine. He even explained what happened to Mom while she fixed him a sandwich, so he seems to have a good grasp on what set you off. He said he's sorry that drunk said hurtful things to you, and he couldn't blame you for being angry." She sifted Shuyin's long, blond bangs through her fingers so that she could clearly see his deep blue eyes. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know. I keep thinking about it, … thinking about why my parents left. I'm afraid I'm beginning to understand them a little. But I don't want to do anything stupid. I could use some company," he admitted, knowing that would have sounded like a ploy if he hadn't been so depressed.

"In the bath, or after it?" she asked with amusement.

He paused, distracted by those options for a moment. "Both?"

She laughed lightly. "Well, at least that sounds more like your usual fare."

He gave her a weak smile, but then shrugged it off in discouragement. "Seriously, it's enough for you to just be here. The silence is very heavy right now, if you know what I mean." He checked the knuckles on his sore hand.

"I thought it might be." She sympathetically nodded and brushed a few water droplets beading from his shoulders. Then, she took his injured hand and cast a small cure spell over it.

"Thanks." He could flex his fingers with ease now.

She gave the healed hand a pat. "Perhaps, … you should come with me. I think I know something that might help," Tugging his hand, she coaxed him to follow her to the front door.

"Lenne, ... I'm in a towel," he reminded her, but allowed himself to be led outside.

"Yeah, you might want to hold onto that because it's a little breezy tonight," she answered, leading him up to the top deck of the houseboat.

"A little breezy? I'm wet, so this is cold. And I've got a definite draft situation going on here."

She laughed lightly at his complaints. "Okay. I can take care of that. Wait right here." She went back inside and came out a few minutes later with the blanket from his bed. Draping it around his shoulders and securing it at his chest, she sat down on the deck and patted the space beside her. "Come on. You'll like this. I promise."

Suspicious, but resigned to see where she was going with this crazy idea, Shuyin sighed, shifted his blanket more closely around himself, and sat down on the deck where she indicated. "This isn't another trick, like the foot-tapping thing, is it? Did you hide my clothes while getting the blanket?"

"No." She chuckled at his paranoia as she moved behind him, leaned back against the rail post, and drew his shoulders back against her. "Scoot back and look up."

He did so, and as he reclined against her chest, she wrapped her arms over the blanket to help him stay warm in the cool night air. But only when he lifted his chin did he realize what she was trying to get him to do. There were countless stars sparkling overhead in the clear night sky.

"You said counting stars helped you unwind, right?"

He couldn't believe she remembered.

"I've heard you can see even more on the open sea."

"The boat's in no condition, and I have early practice tomorrow. But … maybe it's time to work on that."

"How long has it been since you took her out there?"

"A long, long time."

"Well, I don't know anything about boat maintenance, but I'm willing to help if you need an extra hand." She snuggled closer to rest her chin on top of his head. "If nothing else, I can summon an aeon to fly us back if it sinks."

He smirked at the idea. "If the boat sinks, I can swim. If a flying dead thing drops me, all I can do is fall. At least the boat still has a little life left in it," he sardonically added. The sky was absolutely beautiful, but he could still feel dark thoughts on the edge of his conscience. He sighed, hesitant to speak what was on his mind now. "Can you stay ... for a while?"

"As long as you need," she agreed. "I don't have my guitar with me, but I just thought of a song you might like. Want to hear it?"

He tilted his chin toward her, curious.

Lenne cleared her throat and began to softly hum and sing to a gentle tune.

_"Whispers from a childhood long ago_

_Cobwebs in the mind's distant attic corners_

_How long will you run to escape your memories?_

_How far, how far away?_

_Reach out your arms to me._

_Happiness is near._

_Don't give up in fear._

_Forgive and be forgiv'n._

_When you are not yourself_

_Drowned in oceans deep_

_Draw close to me._

_Share your pain with me._

_Heal ... and be healed._

_Believe_

_In me_

_I will be here ... for you._

_You're eternally protected, a cherished treasure to my heart._

_Alive ... and beautiful, your smile brings hope to me._

_Don't feel lost. Come into my light, and share your precious soul with me._

_Restless spirit, stay beside me. Love and be loved forever._

_Believe in me, and I will be here for you._

_Believe in me, and I will be here for you._

_Share your soul with me, smile, and be loved forever._

_Share your soul with me, smile, and be loved forever._

_La-la-la-la-la_

_La-la-la-la-la-la-la ..."_

As Lenne repeated the song, the soft and gentle tune rose in volume and strength. And though she tapped her foot to an orchestral rhythm heard only in her head, her voice, uncluttered by back-up vocals or instruments, conveyed a symphony of warmth.

Shuyin slipped a hand from beneath the blanket to entwine his fingers in hers. Letting his head rest against her collar bone, he looked up at the stars once more. In spite of everything that had happened that day, at that moment, he felt nothing but peace.

))((

The next morning, when Shuyin woke, Lenne was still nestled against him, sleeping beneath his arm. He closed his eyes for a moment wishing he could find an excuse not to go to training, but then opened them to see the clock tick down one more minute until the alarm was set to beep. Resigned to his fate, he rose on one elbow and reached over her to pick up the small item and turn it off before it could wake her. Gently sweeping her hair away from her neck, he smoothed it over the pillow before kissing her shoulder. Then, being as quiet as he could, he sat up and left his bed to dress in a pair of shorts and T-shirt. Picking up his socks, sneakers, and key-card, he took one last look at her, smiled to himself, and slipped out of the room.

Stopping at the small table near the hall, he wrote a note for her and snickered to himself as he signed it. Then, he dropped the key-card on top of it and pulled the table in front of the door, so she wouldn't miss it upon waking. Finally, he headed into the kitchen to grab an orange for breakfast and left the houseboat to head to the pool.

))((

When Lenne woke about an hour later, she stretched, sat up, and looked around the empty room. "Shuyin?"

Remembering he had an early practice and realizing she was probably alone, she pulled the blanket off of the bed to wrap around her cold shoulders and padded to the bedroom door. As soon as she opened it, she nearly stumbled into the small table barricade, but spotted the note and lifted it to read.

_"Gone to training. Stay as long as you like. My heart and my home are yours. Lock up when you leave. Bring key-card to pool. If there's anything left of me after my ass-chewing session with the coach, I'll see you later tonight. Love, Shuyin."_

She read it again a few more times, smiling, before she realized her thumb was covering a portion of something. "'P.S.,'" she read aloud. "'See? I can write nice notes, too.'" But it had another doodle of a monkey spanking itself beside the lettering. Smirking at his foolishness, she lifted the key-card and bumped the small table out of her way. After a short shower and a small breakfast, she locked the houseboat door behind her and headed to the pool.

))((

When Lenne arrived at the sphere pool and asked to see Shuyin, she was directed to the practice pool. But upon entering the practice pool and asking about him, she was directed to the offices. Knowing that his being in the offices meant he was still enduring his punishment for what happened last night, Lenne decided to stay put in the practice pool and wait for his return. Sitting down on one of the benches, she removed her sunglasses and hat to watch the rest of his teammates run through their drills. They were waiting for the return of their coach to tackle the problems that caused last night's game loss. Unfortunately, Shuyin was going to be part of that corrective session, as well.

Having nothing better to do, she pulled out a music sphere and plugged in her headphones. Then she retrieved her mini-electronic notebook from her purse and decided to write a new song - perhaps one about Shuyin. She smiled to herself thinking about everything they did last night and unhooked the accompanying pen to write down the forthcoming lyrics. He was such a minefield of potential when it came to poetic phrases. But thinking of poetry also made her think of Koji.

Neither of them had mentioned him last night after Shuyin's uncomfortable reminder at dinner about the passage of time. In her mind, she had already broken off that relationship and put it behind her, but in reality it was still being delayed. She scratched out what she had written in her notebook and tried a new approach, but her thoughts of being with Shuyin still circled back to Koji. Finally, she groaned to herself and switched on her com sphere, linking to his apartment. She decided that after last night, she could no longer wait for good news to spare Koji's feelings. She had to end it today.

"Hey," he greeted her with a morose tone and sigh. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed.

"Koji," she smiled sympathetically in return. "Any news?"

"Of course not. All positions in Zanarkand are filled. I'm thinking about going to Luca tomorrow to check options. I've heard they're trying to build up some leagues between the various cities at the southern end of Spira. They couldn't possibly have anything as good as Zanarkand, but it would be better than nothing, I suppose."

She knocked her knees together and studied a manicured nail as she waited to be invited to tag along, but when the offer didn't come, Lenne sighed and reminded herself why she called. "Well, I was wondering if you were free for dinner tonight - my treat."

He shook his head. "I'm not really in the mood to go out."

"Then, maybe you'd rather come over to my place."

"Actually, I need to pack if I'm going to Luca. But you could come here, if you want."

Just then, a rather defeated-looking Shuyin entered the pool area, spotted Lenne, and came toward her before having to explain the ordeal to his teammates.

Knowing the com sphere would transmit images of anything near her, she quickly held up a hand to cue Shuyin to stay away. "No. If your family's around, we won't be able to talk about … things." She tried not to wince, knowing that sounded bad. "Please. Come to my place for dinner. Okay? You can tell me about blitzball in Luca."

Shuyin paused beyond range of the sphere's vision, but gave her a puzzled frown.

"Okay," Koji answered. "Look, I'm … I'm sorry I haven't been very lively company lately. I know you're probably feeling a little neglected. I'll make it up to you tonight, okay? I have an idea."

"No, you don't need to do anything special. Really."

"I insist." He smiled. "But it's going to be a surprise, so don't ask any questions and spoil it."

Lenne tried to smile and look happy at the prospect. "I have to go now. I'll see you later, okay?"

"I'll be there."

Shuyin's frown deepened as she cut the connection, tucked the sphere back into her purse, and removed her headphones. "You haven't told him yet. Have you?" he guessed, based on what he heard of her half of the conversation.

"I will tonight. I promise. I can't keep waiting for his luck to turn around, and he's going to Luca tomorrow, so I need to tell him before he leaves. He sleeps all day and doesn't eat much. I'm really worried about him, but … I guess it can't be helped now, can it?" She put away the notebook and sphere and stood to greet him with a hug. "How'd it go?" she asked, returning his key-card.

He shook his head in disgrace. "It went. They said I cracked a couple of the drunk bastard's ribs, but he's not pressing charges because of too many witnesses saying he provoked the whole thing and some kind of deal drawn up by the Abes legal department. However, I do have to 'officially' apologize to him and the restaurant. I've been fined half of my next paycheck, and I have to pay for damages and any medical bills insurance won't cover. I have to prepare a statement for the press in response to what happened, but I'm restricted from discussing it beyond that." He tried to think. "Oh yeah, and I got the 'When your dad was on this team ...' lecture after being threatened with suspension without pay if I do it again." Shuyin lifted an apologetic gaze to her and changed subjects, not wanting to talk about this one any more. "I'm surprised you stayed last night."

"I'm glad I did." She smiled to reassure him she meant that.

He looked relieved to hear it. "Listen, … I need to get away from all this for a little while. Clear my head." He raked a finger across the fringe at the bottom of her handkerchief-style shirt. "How would you like to go camping this weekend? You can even bring your brother."

Lenne grinned with anticipation. "Great! But, ... you have a game this weekend, don't you?"

"Yeah, but we could do it the next day, and I could take a day off of training. I haven't missed any yet, so I can do that."

"Sounds like fun. Of course, you realize my mother's going to want to meet you before you have permission to drag my little brother out in the middle of nowhere."

Shuyin winced. "Just don't let her watch the news for about two weeks. I don't want her thinking I'm an idiot before she even meets me."

"Oh, she already thinks you're an idiot." She draped her arms around his neck. "She saw the notes you wrote to me."

"_What?_" He put a hand to his forehead. "You're kidding! What'd you show her those for?"

"Bahamut used them to ask permission to go to the game, but I showed them to her again to ask her opinion about whether she thought you were worth the risk."

"Mothers don't appreciate snogging jokes and spanking monkeys, Lenne."

"My mother is a very wise woman. I trust her opinions immensely when I have to make important decisions."

He almost didn't want to know the verdict, but he had to ask. "And what did she say?"

"She thinks you're an idiot," she repeated with a light laugh.

He snorted and shook his head in defeat.

"However, she also thinks that since you went through all that trouble to make Bahamut happy - and since he seems to think a lot of you, too - that you can't be too terribly bad. She said sometimes you have to be willing to give up a few good-fitting pairs of shoes so you can afford one great-fitting pair because comfort is important on your journey through life."

He rested his hands at her waist. "Your mother compared me to a pair of shoes."

"She likes to shop, so her analogies tend to include clothing."

"Ah. Well, at least you get it honestly." He indicated her funky fashion preferences by tugging on one of the fringes of her shirt and looked down at her miniskirt and ribbon-wrapped heels.

Lenne smiled in a rather sly manner. "She also said something about blitz players, but I'll wait until you're not afraid of her any more to spring that one on you."

"Well, in that case, _definitely_ don't let her watch the news." He glanced toward his teammates and the practice pool. "Listen, I'd better swim my laps before I get chewed out again. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Her expression drew into a pout, and she shook her head. "Not tonight. I don't know what to expect after dinner with Koji. I don't want to cut and run on him if he doesn't take it well."

He nodded in understanding and gave her a parting kiss and then pulled away from her embrace to slip his key-card into the game play notebook he carried. After setting it on the bench, he waved once more to her before diving into the pool.

Lenne sighed to herself wishing she could stay here all day watching Shuyin play blitzball. His moves in the water were nothing short of fascinating to her, and though she hated to admit it, she was starting to like the unpredictable, fast-paced action of the sport. It was ironic that it took Shuyin to help her understand Koji's desire to play professionally, but the few games she had seen Koji play were nothing like the exuberant matches Shuyin threw himself into. With that in mind, she made herself turn for the door and tried to think of what to say to Koji tonight.

))((

A few days later, Shuyin sat at his keyboard composing a song that he had been humming to himself during training when he heard a knock on the front door of his houseboat. He quickly wrote down the last two notes and played the last bar one more time to see how they sounded together. The knock at the door repeated. "Just a minute!" He snorted at the disturbance, but stood to answer the call.

Hands in pockets, Koji waited outside with unease and a brooding expression. "Busy?"

Uttering a mental curse to himself, Shuyin suspected he knew what this visit was all about, but he stepped aside to invite him in anyway.

Koji entered the houseboat for the first time in over half a year and looked around as his former best friend shut the door behind him. "Lenne broke up with me a few days ago. Three guesses why."

"Me, me, and ... me?" Shuyin had already heard from Lenne the night she broke the news to Koji. She said he was very reluctant to let her go, but that Shuyin's name didn't come into the conversation at all. So the fact that Koji was here now meant he had figured out Shuyin's role anyway and decided to challenge him about it. Denial was pointless.

Koji confronted him directly. "I just want to know one thing. Did you hook up with her before or after she broke up with me?"

Shuyin averted his gaze, unable to give Koji the answer he wanted to hear.

"_Before _or _after?_" Koji demanded.

"Before," he quietly admitted.

Koji slammed his fist into Shuyin's face and then shoved him back a couple of steps, but kept his distance after that as he continued to seethe with hurt and anger.

Shuyin dabbed the back of his wrist at the blood in the corner of his throbbing, busted lip, but he made no move to fight back.

"This is payback for that incident with Birana, isn't it?"

There it was - the card Shuyin had been expecting him to play. "No."

"Then why didn't you back off?" Koji angrily demanded. "That's what you promised you would do if you _knew_ I was interested in someone!"

"I _did_! I walked away, more than once! But she came back to me!" Shuyin reminded himself to stay calm. He didn't need another fight hitting the headlines - especially not this one. "Hit me again if it makes you feel better, but I can't walk away from her anymore. I haven't known her as long as you have, but she already means more to me than any girl I've ever met."

Koji snorted, shook his head, and laughed. "You know what? I almost believe you." With two fingers, he drew a slip of paper from his pocket.

Shuyin found the laughter and calm in Koji's behavior more disturbing than the fact that he'd hit him, but he snatched the note and opened it. It was the note he had left for Lenne the morning after she stayed with him. "Where did you get this?"

"Her nightstand drawer."

Shuyin was appalled. "You searched her drawers? That's an invasion of privacy."

"_You're_ the one having an affair with my girlfriend. Don't look at me like I'm the low life here."

"Well, don't blame me as if I was the only one guilty of making that call," Shuyin angrily corrected. "She's free to choose who she wants."

"But you knew how I felt about her!"

As soon as Koji said it, Shuyin recognized his own argument concerning Birana. He could tell Koji recognized it, too.

"Everything was fine until you came along. The minute I saw you at the concert, I knew you would try something like this," Koji continued. "I even warned her, so she wouldn't fall for it."

"I'm sor-"

"No, you're not! You don't care about anyone else as long as you get what you want."

"This isn't some grand scheme to get you back. Neither one of us wanted to hurt you, Koji. If I'd wanted to hurt you, I would have called you up with the first kiss." Again, the irony of what happened with Birana hung thick in the air. "The reason she delayed telling you was because she didn't want to hurt your feelings when you were already down - not because we were trying to play you."

"When she broke up with me, I asked if there was someone else. She refused to answer, so I _knew_ you were the reason. When she left the room, it was just a matter of knowing where to look for the evidence. How do you do it, Shu? How do you get people to fall at your feet and worship you like that? Did you know that Kaila actually has an Abes poster of you on her bedroom wall? She got it at one of your games, but I'll bet you didn't even notice her in the crowd among all the other girls."

Shuyin's anger softened. "If Kaila really wants to see me again, tell her to come to the doors at the back where the locker rooms are. I sign autographs there before and after games. I'll be more than happy to pull her inside for a private talk if she has anything to say to me. I never got to apologize to her like I wanted to."

"Well, don't count on her believing that. She's seen the news about your little barroom brawl, and I already told her that Lenne broke up with me because of you. She thinks you're a class-A jerk now, ... yet she still misses you. Explain that to me because it defies logic. It's as if you've got some kind of charm spell that allows you to get under people's skin. You can make them do whatever you want, and when they can't handle you anymore, they go insane. You're just like your father."

Shuyin frowned as that insult cut deeper than the rest of them. "At least I don't use people to further my own success. Who does Lenne know that you want to impress? What use is she to you?"

"I love her! I had no intention of using Lenne. I learned my lesson about disrespecting people back in high school. You, however, apparently didn't. You hooked up with my girlfriend behind my back. Why do you have all the luck? It doesn't matter if I study hard, score higher, obey the rules, and be nice to the girl, ... because in the end, you will _always_ get what I want. Nothing's changed." He took a step closer to Shuyin. "In fact, it's beginning to look like the only way for me to get what I want ... is to get rid of you."

Shuyin backed away with a strange feeling in his gut. "Koji, this kind of jealousy -"

"Jealousy?" Koji gave another strange chuckle. "Jealous doesn't begin to describe how I feel about you anymore, Shuyin. When we were kids, I was jealous of the attention you got. Now, I'm just tired of you ruining my life." He drew a gun, unlocked the safety, and pointed it at his former best friend.

Shuyin's eyes widened in shock. Not waiting to see if Koji was bluffing, he turned and ran down the stairs to the lower level, just missing the shot that was fired at him. Running to his parents' bedroom, he threw open the closet to dig out the only weapon he knew the boat had - his father's longsword. But what good was a sword against bullets? He looked around for something else to aid his situation and spotted the chin-up bar his father had installed in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs.

As Koji came down the stairs, Shuyin jumped up and caught the bar, pulling himself high enough to punch both feet toward the gun and kick him backwards.

Koji landed against the wall, but didn't drop the weapon. Instead, he fired another shot as Shuyin dropped to the floor. His quick reaction meant bad aim, and the bullet pierced Shuyin's arm, rather than his heart.

By now, Shuyin was angered and frightened enough that his adrenaline took over. He swung the heavy sword with his uninjured arm and sent the gun sliding across the floor under the bed, but he also opened a gash in Koji's unprotected chest.

Stunned, Koji looked down at the blood. "You bastard, you actually cut me!"

"Because you shot me! Stop doing this! Stop comparing yourself with me before you make yourself crazy! I let you hit me because I know I deserved it, but I am _not_ going to stand still while you point a gun at my head!" He paused a second to calm his rapid heartbeat. "Look, I know you're upset, but can't we just talk about this? Please? We can leave the weapons down here and go upstairs, and I'm willing to pretend this never happened. Okay?" He flipped the sword in his hand, so that the hilt was facing his former friend, instead of the blade.

"Give Lenne back to me." The brown-haired young man's expression softened slightly at the request, revealing his heart ache over this. "You have everything. I have nothing, except her."

Shuyin felt bad that he had been wrong about Koji's intentions toward Lenne, but he couldn't do anything to change the circumstances of the situation. "Koji, she's a human being, not a trophy. I can't just hand her back to you. The choice was hers, ... and she chose me."

Koji gritted his teeth and charged Shuyin in a head-on tackle. Shuyin lost his grip on the sword and dropped it, but he responded to the familiar game attack by elbowing, twisting, and finally kicking his way free.

Running up the stairs and out the front door, Shuyin dove over the side of the boat into the dark, cold water of the bay. He swam as fast and strong as he could to a different location, thinking it would be safer to come out of the water somewhere that Koji wouldn't be expecting to see him. But, Koji followed to the side of the boat and dove under, swimming after him with strokes just as powerful.

Koji caught Shuyin's ankle and jerked him backwards toward him. The blitzball players grappled again in another fight, both of them equal in strength and endurance to do such a thing under the ocean. But there was one major difference between the ocean and the sphere pool - fiends.

The large water fiend rose up from the graves below the city, aroused by the scent of the blood and the motion of their struggle. Tentacles longer than either of them lashed out and snapped against both young men like electrical whips. Shuyin's back stung with a sharp, throbbing pain, and he released Koji to flee for his life. He paused once to look back and see if Koji was following, but his friend was caught in a struggle that he couldn't win. Shuyin panicked and started to return to help, but he had no weapons to turn the fight in their favor and by the time he retrieved them from the boat it would be too late. This was one competition they would both end up losing. Making a horrible decision, Shuyin chose to swim for the surface.

Bursting out of the water as if setting up for a sphere shot, he allowed his momentum to carry him high out of the water and twisted in the air to see the pier below him for his landing. His acrobatics were nowhere near as solid as in his games, so his back and legs both felt the stress of the hard skid as he rolled across the concrete surface. Gasping for breath, he crawled to the edge of the pier to scan the surface of the water. "Koji!"

There was no response. Clutching his wounded arm, which burned with exposure to the salt water, he pulled himself to his feet near a post and moved down the pier to call again. "Koji!"

Burdened with dread, he knew the outcome of the encounter below without having to see any signs of it. Shuyin bent over the post and buried his face in his arm to grieve once more - this time, the loss of someone who had been like a brother to him. How was he ever going to tell Lenne about this? How was he going to tell Kaila?


	14. Chapter 14: First Love

Chapter 14: First Love

When Kaila answered the door, she was stunned, not only by Shuyin's presence, but by his appearance, as well. Except for being barefoot, he looked as if he had been swimming fully clothed. The bicep of his left arm had been hastily wrapped in a blood-stained, gauze bandage. His lip was cut and swollen, and his knees were scraped raw. "Shuyin? Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?" She invited him inside, but as he walked past her and paused in the middle of the living room, her attention was drawn to the gaping hole in the back of his shirt, torn from shoulder to hem. The shirt was also stained with blood, and through the hole, she could see large, red welts on his back.

He looked toward Koji's bedroom, out of habit. "Are your parents home?" he quietly asked.

"Not at the moment. And if you came to see Koji, he's not in right now, either."

"I … know." His eyes closed briefly as if struggling to stay in control of a wave of emotion that looked as if it was going to break him at any moment.

"What happened to you?" Trying not to gawk at the unusual damage done to his back, she moved in front of him with worry. "Do you need someone to take you to a healer?"

"Koji ... " He paused and tried to hold back the wave again. "We got into a fight, and then this water fiend ... It was the biggest fiend I've ever seen." Sniffling and still trying to hold back the wave, he looked down at the pillowcase-wrapped bundle in his hands and passed it to her. "This belonged to him."

She had no idea what it could be, but she accepted and opened it to see a bloodstained handgun. Dread crept into her thoughts as she looked back to him for a clearer explanation. His eyes were bloodshot, and not just from saltwater exposure. He had been crying. Nothing in the world was more sad to Kaila than seeing Shuyin cry. It was what had drawn her attention to him the first time they met, and it was what confirmed that his heart was breaking now. "Shu? Where is Koji?"

He shivered, but lifted his arm to show her the bullet wound. "He shot me, Kaila. He shot me, and I jumped into the water to lose him. But he followed me. And then the fiend came out of nowhere, and … he couldn't escape." He opened his mouth to say more, but then shook his head, helpless to answer her question about a location.

Kaila cupped a hand to her mouth and shook her head in denial, though she knew he was telling the truth. Breaking into tears, she collapsed.

))((

Shuyin caught Kaila as she fell to her knees. Drawing her into his arms, he supported her grief in the same manner she had done for him when he found his mother's body on the kitchen floor. She clutched the back of his torn shirt in a tight fist as she cried, and her shoulders shook with sobs for what seemed like an eternity. Shuyin felt responsible for each tear that fell. He thought he had worked past his own tears with the numbness that had settled over him while he was treating his arm with the first-aid kit and cleaning up the blood on the bedroom floor. But seeing Kaila fall apart like this coaxed them back.

After their long moment of shared grief, Kaila was able to pull away and wipe her tears, though new ones continued to silently fall. "Please stay. Mom and Dad will want to talk to you."

He gave a somber nod.

Not wanting to hold the gun anymore, Kaila placed it on the table, still inside the pillowcase. Then, she excused herself to the kitchen to contact her parents and give them the news.

Shuyin wiped a hand over his eyes as he stood and crossed the living room where he and Koji used to play games together. In the hall, rounding the corner, he caught a glimpse of Kaila's room directly to his left. A small Abes poster of himself in mid-arc doing a sphere shot graced her wall, and he remembered the day on the school playground when he first did that jump on land. Kaila had been so proud of him. Koji had called him on a technical imperfection. Koji had been right, of course, but Shuyin had responded with a challenge - a challenge he then won.

With a heavy sigh and a heavier heart, Shuyin turned to his right to enter Koji's bedroom. So many childhood memories had taken place here. Posters and pennants of all the major league blitz teams that Koji collected throughout his life still decorated the walls, but the various swimsuit models that went up during high school had been taken down. Pictures of Lenne scattered around the room had apparently taken their place. They looked like a happy couple in the holographic cube of them together on the dresser. Lifting the cube in his hand, Shuyin backed into the wall behind him and slid down to the floor. The lacerated welts on his back stung like crazy with the action, but it was part of the price paid for one kiss.

After a few minutes, Kaila found him slouched against the wall on the floor of Koji's room like that. "My parents are on their way home." Still coping with silent tears, she knelt in front of him and draped a large towel over his shoulders and head. "Your back looks pretty bad."

"It had tentacles, … and they burned with magic."

"Did Koji ... drown, or was he …" She couldn't choke the rest of the question out.

Shuyin dug his toes into the luxurious carpet as he replayed the attack in his mind. The way his friend was being thrown around like a rag doll, he was sure Koji's lungs had been crushed first. He didn't want to think about what could have happened after that. "He drowned."

Kaila tried to find comfort in that. Death-by-drowning was certainly better than the alternatives, but she didn't seem to want to think about what else her twin might have suffered in the grip of a large fiend, either. So, she noted the holograph in his hands, instead. "Your fight ... It was because of Lenne, wasn't it?" she asked with a sniffle.

He reluctantly nodded.

"Koji was planning on asking her to marry him as soon as he got a job with a blitz team, so that it wouldn't look like he was mooching off of her celebrity status as a singer."

Shuyin absorbed that little fact as if he'd been shot a second time. "I … didn't know." The numbness broke again as tears trickled down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Kaila. I didn't mean for anything like this to happen. Koji was my brother, too, you know?"

"I know. It may not seem like it recently, but he always felt the same way about you. Why else do you think he had such sibling rivalry issues? He thought the world of you, but … it was hard for him, always being 'Shuyin's friend', but never Koji. I understand his frustration to some extent, because I was always just 'Koji's sister' to you - never truly Kaila. He's been very upset with you in the past, but he's never talked about wanting to hurt you. I guess he was so stressed this time that he just … snapped."

"You probably hate me more than ever now."

Kaila sadly shook her head. "I don't hate you, Shu. I don't always like what you do, but there will always be a place in my heart for you."

He looked up at her, utterly bewildered as Koji's last words about her rang true. "How can you forgive me after something like this? This is much worse than what happened the night of the dance."

"This isn't your fault."

He shook his head in adamant disagreement. "I promised him I'd back off, but then I kissed her anyway! I'm the one that chose to dive into the water! And I didn't even try to save him from the fiend because I didn't think I could! How can you say I have no blame here?"

"I didn't say you had no blame. I said it wasn't your fault. You stole the heart of someone he loved, but if Koji took a gun to your house, how can this be your fault? You're reckless, Shuyin, but you've never been vengeful."

"That's not what Koji said."

"That's because Koji felt guilty about what he did to us the night of the dance."

"If he felt guilty about it, why did he tell Lenne all that crap about me?"

"Because that's how he experienced it. And he was afraid of losing her to you."

Shuyin winced and looked away in disgust.

"You have a powerful personality, Shu. It's a bit overwhelming sometimes to those of us who are a little more … subdued. But you've never been tainted with horrible intentions to hurt people on purpose. Deep down, Koji knew that. But he always had to compete with you - _always_. He knew he could never match your strength of spirit, so he took his frustrations out on you. Don't you see? He was jealous of you because he couldn't find a real reason to hate you."

Shuyin shivered again and rubbed the towel over his wet head, pulling it around his shoulders, careful not to hurt his back and arm any more than they already did.

"You know, … you taught both of us something very important the night of that dance. Even if Koji's guilt made his jealousy worse, you taught him to be sincere with people. He apologized to me for setting us up, and I think he even went to see Birana to apologize to her. I assumed he apologized to you, or he wouldn't have dragged me to the boat to talk to you again. And he was very careful to keep his relationship with Lenne separate from his career goals because of that. Perhaps he was too careful to separate them and ended up shutting her out."

He sniffled and looked back to her. "She said she felt distant - that she would have called it off with or without me."

Kaila nodded in sad agreement. "You can't make someone love you. That's what you taught me that night. I learned the difference between love and obsession, and that love shouldn't make you lose self-respect just to get someone's attention." She smiled through her tears. "I suffered through twelve years of attitude, pranks, and all other kinds of insulting nonsense to get one kiss from you." Kaila gave a half-hearted smirk and sniffled. "And the sad thing is, I thought that's what you're supposed to do when you love someone - you stick by them no matter what, even when they hurt you."

Shuyin's brows rose in guilt. "I swear I didn't know. I never meant to hurt you."

"I know. You're … kinda thick in the subtle hints department sometimes." She smiled lightly. "And we were kids through most of it. Kids pick on each other all the time. I don't know why I expected things to suddenly change between us."

He couldn't help but think of his own parents. "My mom used to stick by my old man, even when he hurt her. She made all kinds of excuses for his behavior, even after he abandoned us. But she said she stayed because she loved him - worshiped him right up until the end."

Kaila shook her head. "That's not love. That's obsession." She wiped a tear and sniffled. "No disrespect to your mother, but that's why they say love is blind. When you obsess over someone, you'll overlook things you don't want to see in order to get what you want. You know? It might feel like love, but it's selfish underneath. Real love isn't possessive. It's protective, even if it means letting go to prevent harm to yourself or the other person." She took the holograph from his hand and gazed down at it with remorse. "When Koji first told me that Lenne left him for you, we both thought you were in it for revenge. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized … that's just not like you. However, the fact that Koji tried to hurt you means he couldn't let go of Lenne. I have no doubt he cared for her very much, but I think it was a selfish love, rather than a protective one. And I think Lenne saw that. I think that's why she wanted out." Kaila realized how quiet he was being during her ramble, and she wasn't sure if it was because she said too much. "It's just my opinion, of course."

"Kaila, … it might not mean much now, but … you are more than Koji's sister to me. It just came out of my mouth all wrong when I tried to explain it. I'm sorry."

She smiled and slipped her arms around his neck to hug him like the life-long friends they used to be. "Thank you, Shu. I'm done obsessing over you, but when I do find my special someone, he's going to have to be a lot like you. Lenne's a lucky girl." Kaila straightened and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Do you love her? I don't mean lust or like. I mean, … do you _really love _her?"

He had not considered it before, so he honestly wasn't sure.

"She was the one thing he absolutely could not bear to lose to you. Whether it's because he wanted her that much, or hated you that much, we'll never know. But if this thing with Lenne is one of your passing flings, then Koji died for nothing."

Shuyin weighed her words carefully. He had tried to walk away for the sake of Lenne's relationship with Koji. He had been willing to let go, even if it wasn't what he wanted. But that wasn't what _she_ wanted. And it was_ her _wish that he had defended … to the death. Closing his eyes with a pained expression, he realized that meant he was probably capable of doing anything for her. "It's not a passing fling," he assured Kaila. "I love her."

))((

After he delivered the devastating news to Koji's parents, Shuyin walked home that evening and contacted Lenne, asking her to come over. He showered, changed, and took some painkillers for his wounds. As he paced the floor waiting for her to come over, he practiced how he intended to tell her what happened. But when he answered the door, and saw her pale face and red eyes, he knew she had already heard. "Kaila contacted you," he guessed.

Lenne nodded, at a loss for words, then immediately reached to him for comfort in their mutual loss. As she leaned against his shoulder and sniffled, she tried to avoid crying again, but the tears came anyway.

"He was right, you know," he quietly spoke. "I'm cursed. I drive people crazy, and then they end up killing themselves," he despondently spoke.

Lenne shook her head and looked up at him with concern. "Don't say things like that. If you start to believe it, you really will curse yourself. We did hurt his feelings - and I feel terrible beyond words about that - but it was his choice to challenge you." Noticing the blood-stained gauze on Shuyin's arm, she removed the bandage to examine the wound. "I could have waited longer to break up with him. You could have avoided me completely. But it wouldn't have changed anything for him. He was being poisoned by his own long-term resentment. That's the kind of thing that turns even the best of souls into fiends." Placing a hand over his arm, she used her white magic to mend it completely. "Shuyin, please don't blame yourself for Koji's death. That's a dangerous thing to do to your own heart." She clasped his hand in hers and lifted her other hand to caress his cheek.

"Did you know he was going to ask you to marry him?"

Lenne was stunned and more deeply saddened. "No."

"Kaila told me."

She withdrew her hand and turned away, troubled. "That must have been his surprise. He was going to surprise me with something after dinner, but … I didn't give him the chance. I didn't want him doing anything special for me since I was going to break things off. I-I couldn't have …" Covering her face with her hands, she started to cry once more.

Shuyin drew her shoulders close, folding his arms around her and cradling her head to his chest. He gave her back a comforting rub before kissing the top of her head and resting his cheek against it. It was only a small relief to hear that Kaila's guess on Koji's relationship with Lenne had been correct. The fact remained that Koji was dead because of his premature interference, his decision to take the fight to the water, and his lack of action in helping him escape the fiend. He had failed to save his best friend, just as he had failed to save his mother. It was a failure he swore to himself he would never be guilty of again.

))((

Koji was honored in a memorial service, and the legal investigation into the circumstances of his death found Shuyin innocent of any charges. News of the incident did not reach the media, thanks to careful management behind the scenes. However, ever since the barroom brawl incident, word had spread that a certain popular singer was beginning to regularly show up in the company of a certain charismatic blitzball star. While most people found this development amusing or endearing, Koji's parents considered Shuyin's brazen union with Lenne to be the obvious blame for Koji's tragic behavior. Favorable and unfavorable opinions aside, Shuyin and Lenne determined to always reserve a place in their memories for their friend, but tried to move on with their lives.

In the weeks that followed their grieving process, Shuyin repaid his debts and apologies for the disturbance he had caused earlier regarding the disgruntled fan at the diner. But just as he was beginning to make his managers shake their heads with regret at their decision to take on such a brash, young athlete, his game plays began to improve. Within another month, Shuyin was back on the crest of the wave in the blitzball arena and the Abes were back at the top of the game. Part of the reason for his improved game performance was his cross-training with martial arts - training that not only gave him new skills, but taught him how to focus himself better. The other reason was a sense of contentment with his life, … and Lenne.

Eventually, Shuyin decided to turn that contentment into creativity to finish the song he had started before Koji's last visit. He had worked so hard to put the finishing touches on it, that he was annoyed when - once more - a knock on the door interrupted him. "It's open!" he called.

"Wow, someone's been housecleaning," Lenne called from the living room. "I was beginning to think that you were the king of clutter instead of the king of the sun and waves."

Shuyin made a face to himself and shook his head at her remark, but then he stood and went to the kitchen where he found her bending over a fruit drawer in the fridge. He smiled to himself for a moment, happy that Lenne liked wearing miniskirts as much as he liked looking at them, but then he lifted the floppy cap from her head and watched her hair spill over her back and shoulders like a graceful web of silk. "You're not going to be able to keep using this disguise forever, you know." He placed her cap on his head and inspected whatever surprises were in the grocery bag she brought with her. Then, he turned to hand her the remaining items that belonged in cold storage.

She flicked her hair over her shoulder to get it out of her way. "Well, it's still good enough to get me to the market and back so I can buy real food instead of those horrible little plastic trays of frozen mystery meat." She turned around and popped a grape into his mouth, whether he wanted it or not, before munching one herself and closing the door. "By the way, after the concert tonight, dinner's on me." Barefoot, she stepped onto his feet, rose to her toes, and kissed him before turning her attention back to the half-empty grocery bag.

Her words distorted into a visual image that made him smirk. "Literally or figuratively?"

She cuffed his stomach and snatched her hat back. "You know what I mean."

"My idea's better."

"Not if it's going to involve me wearing rice and snow peas." She put the hat back on, without twisting her hair up under it, and leaned against the table to much a few more grapes.

"Speaking of snow, I've finally been able to reschedule time off for a camping trip, since I didn't get to go ... before." It was still hard to speak of Koji's death in direct terms. "Still interested in coming along for a trip to Gagazet?"

"What in the world makes you think I would leave my cozy, little home in the city for a mountain of thigh-high snow?"

"It's not that deep. Well, not on the paths anyway. The ronso keep it pretty packed down. And we did tell Bahamut we would take him camping someday." He leaned against the bar counter and stole one of the grapes from her hand.

"What about a trip to the beach, instead?"

"I'm in water all the time. I haven't been to the mountains in a while."

"Ah, but your sphere pool doesn't have sand."

He drew close and rested his hands at her waist. "There's a ronso hot spring there," he reminded her.

"Mmm, ... tempting." She tried not to smile as she continued to eat her grapes.

"I won't throw any snowballs at you."

"Even more tempting."

"But I'll let you throw snowballs at me," he offered with a mischievous wink.

"Ooh. You're on." She kissed him, then went to the sink to wash her hands.

"Cool. I'll get out the gear and check it over as soon as I finish the song."

"Song? What song?" She turned and knitted her brows as she sucked her last grape between her teeth and dried her hands.

"I've been trying to write a song," he admitted in a somewhat bashful manner.

"Is that what you were playing when I came in? I thought that was sheet music from one of your old books."

"No, it's totally mine, but I've never tried to write music before so it's … kind of a slow process."

Lenne smiled at him with pleasant surprise. "Well, in that case, you have to let me hear it."

"It's not as good as anything you've done."

"I'm the music expert here. I'll be the judge of what's good. Come on. You have to play it for me now." Hooking his arm, she led him out of the kitchen and through the houseboat to his room, where she took a seat on the keyboard's bench.

"I was getting ready to record it, so I could hear it from a playback perspective, you know?" Shuyin sat down and reached for a memory sphere he had set up on the back of his keyboard. In messing with it, he knocked off a ceramic monkey she had bought for him and a holographic photo of her in a small cube.

She snickered as he grunted in disgust and reached to pick up the items. "King of clutter - I rest my case."

"Well, you're the one that gave me the stupid monkey."

"It's not stupid. It's cute. I almost bought you a real squatter monkey, you know, but they didn't have one that would do this." She rose half-way and imitated his notorious monkey doodle spank.

He tried not to smile. "How was that again?"

She started to do it again, and then laughed and gave his shoulder a small shove. "You are such a pig sometimes."

He giggled lightly at her reaction. "Why would I want to watch a monkey do that when I can watch you do it instead?"

"Just play your song." She chuckled, giving up on his lewd sense of humor.

"Okay." Still humored, he turned on the recorder and set it on top of the keyboard, careful not to knock over anything this time. Then, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with her, he set his fingers on the keys and drew a breath to settle his concentration. He was a little nervous, since this was the first time he'd ever played an original composition for anyone, but as he began to play the soft, haunting melody, he tuned everything else out.

))((

Lenne thought the song was lovely, but found her attention shifting away from the delicate tune to his hands and face as he played. Shuyin was the kind of guy who threw one hundred percent of himself into whatever he did, and right now, he was one hundred percent into this song. She was surprised and amused at how such a simple thing suddenly made him ten times more amazing to her than he already was. Thoughts of shoving him off of the piano bench and pouncing him with hugs and kisses right then and there did occur to her, but he probably wouldn't have appreciated her interrupting his song like that. Such was the depth of Shuyin's intent when confronted with a challenge. But he was also a very easily distracted individual, and that made her think of a way she could pay him back for his teasing. She snickered to herself, but then leaned close to him. Breathing gently against his neck, she touched the tip of her tongue to his earring and drew it between her teeth.

Shuyin tried not to laugh or give in to the sudden, electrifying sensation. "Cut it out." He tucked his ear to his shoulder in complaint. "I'm trying to concentrate."

She chuckled lightly. "Okay. I'll behave."

Without the distraction, he continued to play through the haunting melody. Every note had to be just right, ... no mistakes.

"Wow, that's really good. No, it's more than good - it's beautiful." She leaned against him with a contented sigh as he continued to play. "Can I have it?"

"No." He chuckled lightly at the request without breaking the song's increasing, yet gentle flow. "You already have enough songs; this one's mine."

"But you'll never play this for anyone else. You're too shy. And then it will be wasted, just like all those years of piano lessons."

"Hey, those lessons weren't my idea. If my mom had her way, I'd be playing classical concerts instead of blitzball. I'm just trying to salvage something useful from all those hours of banging my head, more than my fingers, against the keyboard."

"Well, I think you should be proud of how well you do this. You should share it with more people more often. You've got a real talent. But, I guess it's also kinda nice to see you shy about something, ... for once." She grinned at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He cut her a side glance without pausing the song.

"You're such a humble soul," she chuckled. "So, what did you name it?"

"I haven't named it yet. Guess I'll name it when I feel inspired."

"And then you'll let me have it, and I can add lyrics and sing it at my concert."

He laughed. "No."

"Please?" She leaned over him and kissed his ear once more.

He tilted his ear to his shoulder again and chuckled lightly at her bribery. "No."

"Please ...," she repeated with a grin, leaning in front of him to kiss his lips instead.

"Nh-nh," he denied one more time. As the kiss lingered, his hand reached blindly for the memory sphere, groping to turn it off. The sphere slipped from the back of the keyboard and wedged itself next to the wall at a precarious tilt. "Damn," he muttered. "Why do I always do that?" The memory sphere hit the floor and blinked off.

Lenne giggled a little, but Shuyin was so into the kiss now that he left the sphere on the floor and straddled the bench to face her instead of the piano. Reaching to the long silver chain that looped over her belt, he tugged playfully on it, wanting her to scoot closer.

Lenne humored him by copying his position, but dangled her knees over his, interlocking her fingers behind his neck and touching her nose to his, in a child-like manner. "Don't even think about getting feisty now."

"I'm always feisty." He dismissed her warning.

"But I have to be at the concert hall in an hour." She gave her feet a light swing.

"Well, I was only interested in playing my song, but noooo, you had to start messing with my ears."

She laughed lightly at his sultry smile as she drew her fingers down his jaw line to his chin. "Your song was really beautiful, Shu. I'm, touched - no, _honored_ - that you shared it with me. You'll have to play it again for me sometime. Oh, and that reminds me - bring your birthday sphere with you to the concert tonight."

He was puzzled. "You're not making me give it back, are you?"

"No, but I'd like to update it. I've been working on some new songs, we have some new dances, and you need some better memories to store in it. Let's not keep the show that you walked out on, okay?" She gave him a pleading smile. "Besides, I've got something in this show that is just for you." She slid her hands under his shirt, over his soft, warm skin, making him shudder slightly beneath her touch as she glanced toward the clock. An hour was not nearly enough time to enjoy him. Under the circumstances, however, it would have to do.


	15. Chapter 15: Bond of Trust

Chapter 15: Bond of Trust

Lenne overshot her time limit to get to the concert hall, in spite of her attempt to keep an eye on the clock. And now, as she and Shuyin stopped to catch a breath from running, they could see that a large number of people were already clustering at the front doors of the Zanarkand Concert Hall. She needed a good strategy before getting any closer. Making sure her hair was completely tucked under her hat and pushing her sunglasses a bit higher on her nose, she tapped the elderly gentleman in front of her on the shoulder. "Excuse me. Could you tell me what time it is?"

"Well, it's ... let's see." He smiled pleasantly and showed her his pocket watch. "How is that?"

Lenne's eyes widened, and she looked back to the growing crowd waiting for the doors to open. "Could you do me a favor?"

"If I can aid a young maiden in distress, … certainly," he answered in a very proper tone of voice.

"Could you look around the side to the back entrance and tell me if it's just as crowded back there?"

"I just came from there, and I can tell you it is indeed. The concert is about ready to begin, but they haven't even started seating people yet. I consider myself quite fortunate to be able to attend this evening. Lenne is quite a talented and enchanting young woman."

Shuyin's nose scrunched. "Aren't you … kinda old to be attending these kinds of things?"

Lenne cuffed him on the arm and scowled at him. "_Rude_," she whispered in admonishment.

The old man merely chuckled, however. "When you've been around as long as I have, you recognize great talent from good talent. And great talent is admirable at any age. Are you here for the concert, too?"

Lenne smiled in embarrassment, but she was glad that her simple disguise was enough to hide her true identity. "Absolutely. Could I ask another favor of you? Could you go to the back area and look for a little boy about so high with black hair and dark brown eyes?" She held a hand level to her waist. "He's probably wearing his favorite purple hoodie and shorts. His eyes are sensitive to the light, so he usually wears the hood up. If you see him, could you please tell him his sister is here, and bring him back with you?"

"No trouble." The man nodded and left to search the area.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Lenne turned on Shuyin again for his comment about the man's age. "I can't believe you said that."

"If I was a hundred-year-old geezer, I'd think watching a nineteen-year old girl on a stage is great entertainment, too."

"He is a nice man."

He chuckled and shrugged. "I didn't say he wasn't. In fact, I think I've found my role-model for when I retire. I'll grow a long, gray beard that I can paint yellow and black, sit in the stands and yell at all the new Abes bad plays, and then use my cane to show them how to do a _real_ sphere shot. Then, I'll head down to the concert hall and enjoy a great show."

Lenne was distracted seeing the elderly gentleman return with Bahamut in tow. "He found him!" She bowed in gratitude and shook his hand as he came near. "Thank you so much, Sir."

"You are quite welcome. It was no trouble - no trouble at all."

"You're late," the boy told his sister. "People are getting impatient."

"I know, but there's still time," she apologized.

The man's attention returned to Shuyin, and his expression lit with recognition. "Now, I know who you are. I thought you looked familiar. You play for the Abes, do you not? Jecht's son - defender of the family name in the blitzball arena, ... and sports cafes." He chuckled lightly.

Shuyin rolled his eyes slightly at the disgraceful reference. "That's me, alright," he admitted with a small head bob greeting, not proud of the fact.

"My name is Maechen." The scholar bowed and then held out his hand to shake Shuyin's. "How very nice to meet you. I always admired your father's abilities in the sphere pool, and I have been following your progress with much interest. I believe you are destined for great things. But if you are that certain blitzball player, then ... " He adjusted the small, round spectacles on the end of his nose to take another look at Lenne in mild astonishment. "You must be that certain singer."

She put a finger to her lips, but smiled. "Please don't tell anyone I'm here, okay? I need to get inside quickly, but the show will only be delayed more if everyone comes over here." She drew a backstage pass out of her handbag and clicked a pen to quickly sign an autograph for him. "We can talk more after the show, if you like. I hope you enjoy it, … if I can get inside."

"It was enough to simply shake your hand, but ... thank you. It has been an honor to speak directly with you." He smiled, happy with her friendly gift.

Lenne pulled Shuyin and her little brother with her as she led the way to an entirely different building under a flashing billboard on the other side of the high road. "When all else fails, door number three."

"Um, ... the concert hall was that way?" Shuyin pointed behind them.

"I'll never make it through the front doors in a reasonable time, and the door behind the building is for the stage crews and musicians when they arrive before the crowds. Otherwise, there's a third entrance that no one else knows about. The recording offices connect to the concert hall." She pulled open the doors and showed her pass to the security guards posted at the building's entrance, then hurried down the stairs to the long underground corridor toward the main building.

"Shuyin, want to see a special kind of polymer I made today with my chemistry kit?" Bahamut held up a handful of green slime that held together in a lump form, but also dripped slowly between his fingers.

Shuyin put a hand to the back of the kid's neck to keep him moving quickly behind Lenne. "Hm, looks more like shoopuff snot, if you ask me."

Lenne glanced over her shoulder and made a face of disgust at his comment, but shook her head in amusement and continued her determined pace, alternating between a fast walk and a light jog.

"How do you know what shoopuff snot looks like?" Bahamut challenged.

"Figure of speech, kid." Shuyin took the goop from his hand to examine it more closely.

"I'd like to have it back, please." Bahamut reached for it.

Twice the boy's height, Shuyin easily raised it out of his reach. "Why?"

"Because I made it myself."

"Is it toxic?"

"No."

"Does it wash off easily?"

"I guess. Why?"

Shuyin pushed the boy's hands aside and then slapped it into his face with a loud _slop_! He giggled as Bahamut winced at the disgusting sound and sensation, but then Bahamut released a rare giggle, too, and scraped the goop from his face. He reached to slop it back into Shuyin's face, but the blitzball player dodged and jogged ahead of him. Bahamut ran after him, but Shuyin kept hopping a few paces ahead just beyond reach, making taunting gestures. Within seconds they were both laughing and noisily running down the corridor in a full speed chase ahead of the singer.

"Gah! Shuyin! How old are you? Ten?" She laughed in complaint when she saw what he had done to her little brother, but she could tell the blitz player was proud of himself for being able to make the serious boy laugh. "Get that stuff off of him. It's disgusting." She stopped at her dressing room and fumbled with her key-card to open it. Then she threw open the door to let them in. "Sometimes I feel like I'm babysitting _two_ children, only you're worse than he is."

The blitz player turned and walked back to the door, thinking their little game was over. "He started it." He popped the back of the boy's head lightly as he passed him, but now that he was no longer a running target, Bahamut slopped the slime into his face, anyway. "Oh gross." Shuyin winced, making Bahamut giggle even more. "She's right. This really is disgusting." He scraped the polymer goop off of his cheek.

Lenne entered the dressing room to face a most unhappy stage production crew who all made a point of checking their watches in unison. Bahamut started to follow when Shuyin wrapped him in a surprise headlock and slapped the goop back into his face a second time. Then, with a smug, satisfied chuckle, Shuyin strolled into the room ahead of him.

Dori, Lenne's manager, stared at the trio's dramatic entrance as if torn between sighing with relief and cursing them out. "Where have you been?" she demanded.

"I was at Shuyin's." Flustered, Lenne quickly pulled off her shoes, hat, and sunglasses and hopped into the make-up chair. Then she remembered she needed to put on her stage costume first, grabbed a feather-fringed garment from the rack, and ran behind a dressing screen instead.

"Oh. Well, that answers my next question about what you were doing," the manager muttered under her breath casting the blitzball player a mildly accusatory glance.

Shuyin flushed slightly and scratched the back of his head as he tried to be invisible.

"He was playing a song for me that he'd written," Lenne explained as she stepped out of her skirt and tugged at the sleeves of her shirt to remove it. "It's a really pretty song, too! If you're nice to him, he might play it for you."

The blitzball player frowned at the dressing screen. "No, he won't."

"Oh, honey, you don't need to feed me excuses." Dori turned around to shut the door. "If I had someone like him and a few idle hours, I'd be doing more than music. The problem is you don't have a few idle hours." She walked past him with a sarcastic expression and pinched his cheek, as she headed to the dressing screen.

Shuyin winced and rubbed his cheek. "Why do I feel like I've just been violated?"

Dori looked over the tops of her glasses at him. "You're going to be in a bigger pinch than that the next time you make her late for a concert." She pushed her glasses back up. "Lenne, we had to do the sound check without you because of this, so you better hope everything works the way it's been set up. Quick make-up check, and you're on in fifteen minutes." She touched a com sphere and spoke to it. "Open the doors. She just came in. Tell everyone the show's going to start in about ten minutes."

"Just make-up? What about my hair? What about my nails?" Lenne rushed to pull on the sleek, white mini-dress that was decorated with a top layer of little, colorful feathers that dangled from the empire waist to the lace hem.

"You should have thought of that before day tripping your way over here." Dori stepped behind the screen and zipped up the back of the dress for her.

Lenne drew in a sharp breath for the last bit of zipper. "Did this thing shrink overnight? I knew I shouldn't have eaten that plate full of fried mochi." Pulling the uncomfortable dress down and twisting it into a slightly more comfortable position, she hurried from behind the screen to the make-up chair and allowed Graig, the make-up artist, to cloak her shoulders and costume to begin work on her face. "I can do my nails while you work, right?"

"Wrong." He gave her a nasty look for even suggesting such a thing.

"But I have these cute little feathered nail accessories that all you have to do is press them on. They're in my purse." She tried to hold her head still while she extended an arm and groped toward the counter. "Shu?" she asked for help.

The blitz player moved to the make-up counter, opened her handbag, and found the box of decorative nail stick-ons she mentioned. "What are you supposed to be? A chocobo?"

"It's a native Besaid-style costume." She stretched her hand to accept the box, but he wasn't offering it.

He grinned mischievously and held the box at her fingertips so that she could touch the box, but not actually grasp it. "Nail feathers?"

"They're not actually feathers, they're just little fluffy bits that ..." She was getting frustrated with being able to feel the box, but not being able to reach it, no matter how much she leaned toward it. When she heard his snickers and saw his grin in the mirror, she realized what he was doing to tease her. With a small snarl, she turned her chin away from the make-up artist and snatched the box from his hand. "You are in rare form today, Shuyin!"

"Lenne!" The make-up artist scolded, grabbed her head, and pulled her shoulders to the back of the chair once more. "If you don't want to look like a clown, don't move." He turned her head to face the mirror once more.

She didn't move, but her eyes returned to Shuyin's reflection in the mirror. He whispered something into Bahamut's ear, and the boy was actually smiling about it. As Lenne continued watching, the boy handed the goop back to the ball player. Shuyin balanced and flattened the slime in his hand, preparing for some new prank as he moved at an angle between her and Graig. "Shu, so help me, if you hit me with that stuff, you will find it up your nose the next time you take a nap," she threatened with a chuckle.

Graig gave him a daggered look for even thinking about messing up his artistic masterpiece.

"You know what? You guys are no fun. But that's okay, because it's more fun to catch someone unsuspecting." He turned to look for a new victim.

The com link in the dressing room chirped with an incoming message, and Dori answered it. "No time for chat. Make it quick."

Lenne continued to watch Shuyin in the mirror as he drew alongside her manager and lightly slapped the substance onto the side of her face. The disgusting squish of the cold slime drew Dori's eyes toward him, but her expression remained flat. "Could you hold just a minute?" she told the caller, as she covered the view with her hand and waited for an explanation. Everyone else in the room cracked up - everyone except Graig, who was even more frustrated now that his model was laughing.

Shuyin giggled at Dori's calm and gingerly peeled the slime off of her cheek. "It's, um, ... shoopuff-poly-snot-something. Sorry. Couldn't resist."

"Are you familiar with water balloons?" she asked him.

"I love water balloons!" He handed the slime back to Bahamut.

"Be very afraid." She wiped her cheek and returned her attention to the com link which she took to the other side of the room to avoid being bothered again.

"Now look what you've done," Lenne told him via the mirror. "You've earned the wrath of my manager. She's going to stalk you with water balloons."

"Dori and me on the beach with buckets full of water balloons. Bring it." He grinned and folded his arms at his chest as he leaned against the edge of the make-up mirror.

"Just a minute." Dori covered the sphere with one hand and walked to Lenne's side, placing it before her. "It's the temple." Her expression had gone from mildly irritated to concerned.

Lenne knew the temple would not have contacted her during a concert if it wasn't important. "Lenne here." She cupped the item in her hands as Shuyin drew near in curiosity to see who it was.

The man visible in the sphere was dressed in the typical temple robes of his office, and he looked grave. "Lenne, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm trying to contact all the summoners in my sector. There haven't been any public announcements yet, but negotiations with Bevelle have just ended. High Summoner Yevon has declared that Zanarkand is to be a self-governing city, no longer bound by the rules that govern the rest of Spira."

Lenne frowned in disbelief. "What? How is that even possible? We're all on the same ship. We can't go in one direction, while the rest of Spira goes another."

"High Summoner Yevon has declared that Zanarkand will not accept the magic restrictions the Founders and the Bevelle governing council wish to invoke."

"And Bevelle is ... okay with that?" she cautiously asked.

"Of course not." He sighed. "But they haven't done anything about it yet, except declare that Zanarkand is trying to run when it has nowhere to hide. Read into that what you will, but Yevon's council is split down the middle on what to do next. The temple will hold a meeting with all summoners and their guardians tomorrow morning. We need all bodies present or accounted for."

"I'll be there," she promised.

"Thank you, Lenne. We'll speak more about it tomorrow. Try not to let it trouble you tonight."

When the com link blinked off, Lenne passed it back to Dori and stared at herself in the mirror as her make-up artist hesitantly continued his work.

The room fell silent, until Dori checked her watch. "Less than five minutes."

As soon as Graig released her from the chair, Lenne grabbed a hair brush and touched up her appearance a little with it. Then, she opened the box she held and quickly pressed the delicate little bits of fluff onto her nails. When she finished, she put her hands to her face, trying not to touch the make-up job, as she drew a breath to calm her nerves.

Shuyin stepped behind her and slipped his arms around her.

Turning the seat around and standing, she hugged him close. "For Zanarkand to completely break away from Bevelle when they were paranoid about us being out of control in the first place … That can't be a good thing, … can it?" She looked up into Shuyin's eyes, and a strange fear swept over her.

Shuyin could read her worry and took it seriously. "Save your questions for the meeting. Right now, half of Zanarkand is out there waiting to hear a great concert. You can't let them down. You heard the man. There's nothing you can do about it tonight."

A knock on the door indicated that it was time for her to be escorted onto the stage.

Lenne was glad Shuyin understood what it meant to be an entertainer. It was their job to give people a break from their worries and troubles. Giving him a kiss, she drew back and tried to smile, ... for the sake of her audience. "Go take your seats. It's show time. Oh, … did you bring the sphere?"

Shuyin dug his birthday present from his pocket and reluctantly released both it and her.

Lenne checked the concerned faces of her crew, grabbed the shoes that went with her stage costume, then hurried out the door.

))((

"This changes everything," Bahamut quietly stated as he replaced the slime in its container. It was a reminder that he, too, was studying to become a summoner. Therefore, he was very aware of how the High Summoner's decision would be interpreted by the rest of the governing bodies of Spira.

Determined to remain upbeat, Shuyin put his hand on the boy's head and directed him toward the door. "Come on. We're going to miss the opening song." He gave a wave to Lenne's crew and passed through the backstage area, exiting discreetly to their reserved seats just as the lights began to flicker on the stage over her entrance.

Everyone else in the concert hall was already standing and dancing. Shuyin glanced down at Bahamut and saw he was preparing to sit down, as always. Shaking his head, he caught the shy boy's hands to pull him back out of his seat to make him dance around. Bahamut was embarrassed, of course, especially when Shuyin inserted his little victory dance, but it did make him laugh again. Finally, the boy gave in and imitated the blitz player's little dance - without needing a fish dropped down his shirt this time.

))((

Up on stage, Lenne grinned from ear-to-ear watching Shuyin's antics bring the boy out of his shell, and that picked up the bounce in her own dance steps. She glanced up at the camera and lights balcony, and the recorder from the crew gave her a thumb's up that the sphere was catching everything. Winking at him, she gave him an 'okay' sign in the middle of her song. No worries tonight. Plenty of time for that tomorrow.

After the first two songs, Lenne paused to take a sip of water from the side stage and reached for one of the acoustic guitars propped in stands. A stage hand brought out a stool for her to sit on and she greeted the audience, welcoming them to her show. "The next song is one that came to me after I met someone very special. I already had parts of it in my head for some time, but meeting him kind of made everything else fall into place." She smiled and strummed the opening chords. The concert hall became quiet and still except for the soft echoes of the song.

_"Whispers from a childhood long ago_

_Cobwebs in the mind's distant attic corners_

_How long will you run to escape your memories?"_

))((

Shuyin was silently awed. It was the song she sang to him after the fight fiasco, but with the guitar accompaniment - and then the entire band - swelling into crescendo behind it, the music came to life in multiple layers of incredible beauty and strength. Hearing it sung this way, before thousands of people, truly humbled him. Palms together, fingers against his lips, he smiled and nodded in gratitude for the gift.

When the song was done, the audience cheered and applauded, Lenne wiped a small tear from her eye and grinned back at him. The song had moved her so.

Shuyin gave a shrill wolf whistle and applauded along with the rest of the audience. Bahamut winced at the ear-piercing noise, but then stood on his seat and tried, unsuccessfully, to copy it.

))((

The following afternoon, as Lenne strolled down the pier toward the houseboat, lost in her thoughts, she spotted Shuyin outside on his deck practicing with a bo against a padded central mast. She was relieved he had decided to take her seriously about learning some method of self-defense, and impressed by how fluidly the practice staff was spinning circles around him in a choreography that almost put her stage dancers to shame. In fact, the more that she watched him, an idea came to her that she wondered why she didn't think of before. Realizing she had stopped walking to watch, she made herself continue across the deck to stand a safe distance before him. "You're getting pretty good at that. Course you'd do more damage if you traded the stick for a sword."

He spun the bo to a stop behind his shoulder and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sticks are less expensive to replace than swords, and masts are stronger than both."

"Do you practice against actual opponents, or do you expect your foes to line up like poles?"

"I use a bokken and padded sword against Luperis at the gym, and we both pray that the padding doesn't come off." He smirked lightly at her sarcasm. "How'd your meeting go?"

She walked to the mast to lean against it. "Well, it's true. High Summoner Yu Yevon has declared Zanarkand an independent city, and he's breaking off all negotiations until the Founders and Bevelle recognize us as such. He has been busy setting up new task offices to be sure that Zanarkand is able to continue to function without Bevelle's support in any way. Bevelle has had little to say about it, except that their machina is far more advanced than ours."

Shuyin shook his head at the news. "You're kidding, right? Koji and I did that 'my gun's bigger than yours' crap when we were, like, ... five."

"That's what frightens me. Look at what happened when Koji's paranoia made him snap. It nearly destroyed both of you. The Founders have already stepped up the guards around Bevelle because they think we're going to attack them as an act of rebellion."

He lifted a brow as he squinted into the sun. "Are we?"

She shook her head. "High Summoner Yevon says Zanarkand will maintain a peaceful stance, but that all summoners should be diligent in the practice of our defensive skills." She paused with curiosity. "Have you ever fought any fiends, … other than the one that attacked you and Koji?"

Shuyin was silent for a moment as he tapped the end of the bo against the side of his calf. "Does the drunk in the bar count?"

Lenne chuckled glad to see his humor bounce back in spite of the mention of Koji's death. "Would you like to try out your skills on a real fiend?"

"Well, from what I remember, there used to be a lot of fiends in the mountains. When we go camping, I might get my chance there."

She smiled in a sly manner. "Would you like to fight one that won't try to kill you?"

He tilted his chin at her peculiar question. "Come again?"

Lenne grinned and backed up a few steps. She closed her eyes and summoned an elegant staff with a opalescent handle, then chanted some magic words to herself and swirled around drawing magical glyphs out of the air onto the floor of the deck.

))((

As a large lion-like creature began to rise from the glyphs, Shuyin stumbled backwards to get out of its way and ended up landing on his rear. The beast roared at him, but then sat back on its haunches and glared at him instead of attacking. The blitzball player stared at the fantastic creature in wide-eyed amazement. He'd never seen anything like it before. There was a disturbing intelligence behind the red eyes that bore down on him as the spines on its back opened into a wing-like fan. The spines were not bone, though. They moved of their own accord with pulses of light, more like thin tentacles.

"Shuyin, this is Ryuo. He's an aeon." Lenne patted the creature's shoulder, which was higher than her head. "His spirit lives in a statue in the sacred water gardens east of the city. You should practice fighting him. He won't try to kill you. And if you defeat him, he won't die. He'll simply go back to the plane of magic where he lives. I can always summon him again after he has rested."

"You want me to fight that thing?"

She bent with her summoning staff at her knees and smiled at him. "Don't tell me you're afraid of a little challenge."

"_Little_? He's so big he's going to capsize the freakin' boat!" Shuyin fussed, pointing to the way that the vessel was tilting to one side under the monster's weight.

"Hm, you've got a point there. But he'll give you a more realistic combat experience. You have to try to defeat him, Shuyin."

"Can _you_ defeat him?"

"No, but that's not the point."

"Then why pit me against him? I've had less experience with fiends than you have."

She became irritated that he was arguing with her about it. "Because you have to be able to defeat large fiends, so I can ask you to be my guardian," she insisted with a pout.

Shuyin gave her a questioning look, pushed himself back to his feet, and walked cautiously around the beast, jumping slightly as it gave a throaty growl when he approached her.

"Summoners are supposed to have a least one guardian when they enter battle, or they could get struck during spell casting." She lowered her gaze. "That's especially true in the case of aeon summoning because it takes a few minutes for the creature to manifest into reality. Because the bond between a summoner and guardian is very important for them to be able to work as a team, summoners usually choose people they trust. I've met with a few candidates that came from other temples and had good warrior skills, but the bond of trust just wasn't there."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You would trust _me_ ... with your _life_?"

She lifted her chin and gave a single nod.

Shuyin thought about it for a minute. It was a heavy responsibility - one he wasn't sure he could handle. "Why me?"

"Well, as I said before, being an athelete, I think you'd be capable of the physical demands. I know I can count on you to give it your all because you're determined, ... dedicated. And ... I love the way you make me laugh," she added with a small smile. "I want someone like that by my side during difficult times. Now that I've found you, it doesn't seem right to keep looking for someone else."

Shuyin looked into her eyes and saw something akin to desperation in them. It was not something he normally saw in her confident countenance. "If it means that much to you, I'll do it." He looked at the bo he held, then turned to look at the aeon that still watched him with an intense gaze. "But there is no way I can defeat that thing. I'm just not good enough yet." He admitted instead of boasting about his abilities, for once.

"You can train," she suggested, sounding hopeful and folding her hands over her staff. "You can practice and learn, ... right?"

"I guess so. As long as you're able to control it, so it doesn't eat me."

She smiled. "I promise I won't let it eat you."

He brushed a finger over her cheek. "Then I promise I'll do my best to make sure nothing ever harms you."

Lenne sighed with overwhelming relief and hugged his neck. "Thank you. Just knowing you'll be there means a lot to me."

Shuyin held her for a moment, but then released her and drew a breath to face her aeon once more. "All right, Big Guy. Show me what you got." He tapped the bo on the deck, and then raised it in a defensive posture as he cautiously approached the lion-beast. "I was expecting something built like a dead spirit - not something built like a blitzball stadium."

The aeon growled at him and crouched into a pounce-ready position. Shuyin struck the beast across the shoulder, hesitating to actually hurt it. The aeon responded by springing against him with enough force to thrust him overboard. Lenne gasped and ran to the rail. Leaning over it, the summoner and the aeon searched for signs of him in the water.

Shuyin surfaced, spit out a mouthful of salt water, and squinted up at them. "Okay, this isn't going to work." He dove under and swam to the small ladder on the side of the boat. Throwing the bo onto the deck, he climbed back up. With a sniffle and a cough, he shook the water out of his hair and hooked his fingers in his belt loops to pull his now-water-heavy shorts from his hips back to his waist. "We're going to need to do this on solid ground - preferably _soft _ground - since Godzilla here is going to be kicking my ass without mercy," he added as Lenne muffled a giggle, but then gave him a sympathetic kiss for enduring such things for her. "Let's crank up the boat and take her to the beach. Hopefully the maintenance done so far will be good enough."

The aeon growled and licked its lips as if trying to say something in response.

"Yeah, well, who asked you." Leaving a trail of puddles behind him, Shuyin headed to the cabin for a towel and the engine's key.


	16. Chapter 16: Peaceful Alliance

Chapter 16: Peaceful Alliance

The camping trip was sacrificed again following Yevon's declaration that Zanarkand would be governed independently from the rest of Spira. With the sudden flurry of activity in the temple, Lenne felt it was necessary to expedite Shuyin's guardian training, and he agreed. So, Shuyin spent his days training at the pool for blitzball games, as usual, but his evenings were now spent training at the beach with Lenne's aeons, at the gym with Luperis, or at home experimenting with combinations of his blitzball and martial skills. Before long, Shuyin was using martial techniques to evade, tackle, and shoot during his games, and slamming blitzballs into aeons with enough force to disorient them. His inventive moves locked the Abes into the top ranked position. His notoriety with the sport skyrocketed. And with such intensive, frequent practices, his sword-handling skills were forced to improve quickly, … or he faced brutal consequences.

As Shuyin's skills increased, Lenne summoned increasingly powerful aeons to challenge him. Many days ended with the summoner healing the multiple wounds her aeons inflicted upon her guardian and then holding him in her arms while he recovered from his discomfort and discouragement. But there were also days that ended with inviting Bahamut along for grilling caught fish over a campfire, surfing on the evening tide, and sand castle building in the dark, before heading back to the pier. Game days and concert days were the exceptions. Those days had enough activity of their own, so they always ended with a meal at the Waterwall sports bar or a quiet dinner on the boat.

As Lenne's guardian, Shuyin began attending temple meetings with her. The gravity of Zanarkand's open rebellion against Bevelle became more clear to him, and he began to share her concern for the city on a deeper level. Missions to keep Zanarkand on friendly relations with the other cities on Spira became a priority for Yevon and his summoners when not dealing directly with the spirits of the dead or constitutional issues. Thus, Lenne finally got her wish to travel Spira when she was given the task of visiting some of the towns and villages that did not have temples, and it was Shuyin's duty to protect her on her journey. For her first assignment, Lenne was to take her brother to their closest neighbors, the ronso tribe of Mt. Gagazet. Finally, the perfect opportunity to combine business and pleasure had come their way, and the camping trip was assured.

))((

When Shuyin and Lenne went to pick up Bahamut for their trip, Lenne warned him that her mother's sister was visiting. Shuyin first met Lenne's mother when they picked up Bahamut for one of the previous beach training sessions. Tall, thin, and full of energy, Meri was a clothes horse with a personality a lot like Lenne's and a taste for the spice of life. He liked Meri, and they had a comfortable rapport. Initially, she had ragged Shuyin about his boastful notes and incident with the drunk, but even then she treated him as if he had always been family. So he was not surprised when he walked in the door and was welcomed with open arms - literally - but this time it was by a woman he'd never met.

"Shuyin! I'm so glad to finally meet you! Goodness, I've heard so much about you - media and otherwise." Liv released him from the bear hug, but held onto his hands. "I'm not much of a sports fan, to be honest, but anytime I come across an advertisement for Abes tickets or merchandise it's your face and those fancy flips that I see." Liv paused before looking back to her sister. "Ooh, you're right. He does have nice hands."

"Doesn't he?" Meri laughed with her sister, as if some private joke traded between them.

Shuyin looked down at his hands and then warily looked to Lenne for an explanation.

"Don't ask," Lenne advised. "They're both divorced, and they've probably already had a couple of spiked teas, so if their humor gets too obnoxious for you, don't be afraid to run."

"Oh, stop." Meri chuckled and gave her daughter's shoulder a light smack for that remark. "I was just telling Liv about an article I read explaining what our hands say about our personalities, and Shuyin came into the conversation because his hands always look so manicured and soft in spite of such rough treatment in those games. I think it's because he's in that pool all the time. They put something in the water, don't they?"

He thought the answer would have been obvious. "Um, … chlorine."

Meri laughed. "See? He tolerates my humor better than you do. Isn't that right, Shu?" She gave him a light hug and patted his back. "Did I tell you he's also Lenne's guardian?" she added to her sister. "That's why they're leaving this weekend for the mountains to go speak with the ronso on official business for High Summoner Yevon."

"Oh my. That sounds serious." Lenne's aunt was impressed. "Is that why you're carrying that big sword? And yet you're taking Bahamut with you? Is that safe?"

"Bahamut was assigned to go with me as part of his apprenticeship," Lenne answered. "But we'll take good care of him."

The boy dragged his camping gear into the living room and deposited it in a large mound at Shuyin's boots. "Okay, I'm ready. I studied how to camp this week, and I think I've got everything. First aid kit, cooking kit, compass, maps, water purifying tablets, fiend field guides ..."

Shuyin crouched in front of the bag and gave the strained zipper a poke. "You couldn't even drag this across the floor. How are you going to carry it on your back?"

"I'm just going by what the books said."

"Well, this time you're going by _Shuyin's Book of Because I Said So_. That backpack will turn you into a runaway snowball at the first steep incline. We're just going for a weekend, so we can travel light. All you need is your sleeping bag, a blanket, your toothbrush, something to entertain yourself, and layers. I've got everything else."

"Layers?"

"You _are_ wearing layers, right?" Shuyin lifted the boy's shirt to check, but poked bare ribs. "Where's your underwear?"

"I'm wearing it," he defensively insisted with a mild frown.

"_Long_ underwear - _thermal_ underwear. Gagazet has snow year-round. Go get two more layers of everything, especially socks." He sent the boy back to his room, dumped the backpack, and began repacking it with only the necessities. "He _studied_ camping? Who does that? Camping is one of those things that you never learn how to do right until you do something wrong." He rolled the blanket and bag tightly together and tied them. "Temperatures are going to be the main problem, so we've got to have layers. At night, we can build a fire, sleep in the hot springs, or huddle for warmth, but the hike up and back can get very cold very quickly."

"Huddling for warmth with a blitzball player … Lenne, are you sure you don't want to leave Bahamut here?" Meri asked, but then she and her sister laughed again.

"_Mother!_" Embarrassed, Lenne put a hand to her forehead.

Shuyin wasn't sure which was more amusing, Lenne's mother's and aunt's jokes, or her reaction to them. "Wow. They really need to start dating again. I should bring the other guys from the team next time. They'd have loads of fun with this pair."

Lenne chuckled, glad he was so easy-going about it. "Don't encourage them."

"What about you? Where's your underwear?" he asked with a mock sultry tone as he straightened back to his full height.

She lifted the bottom of her shirt to display a thick, waffle-weave underneath it. "These hideous things cover me from my neck to my ankles, and I'm wearing two pairs of socks. Happy?"

He grinned with approval. "Don't tease me."

She laughed and readjusted her shirts. A few minutes later, Bahamut returned and lifted his shirt to show that he was now wearing thermal layers, too.

Once he passed inspection and threw some more clothing into his backpack, Shuyin helped him try on the adjusted weight. "How's that?"

The boy shifted the backpack on his shoulders and nodded. "It's just right."

"Not too heavy?" Behind him, Shuyin pressed down between the straps. "You sure?"

"It's okay." The boy struggled to maintain balance as the weight on the pack steadily, mysteriously increased. When he nearly fell over, he looked over his shoulder at Shuyin. "You're doing it!" he discovered, as the blitzball player chuckled and gave him a back slap that nearly sent him sprawling.

"Well, you kids have fun. Be careful. Contact us immediately if you get snowed under or something, so we can send help, okay?" Meri gave Bahamut's cheek a kiss. And when he flushed with embarrassment about it, she pulled him back for two more like the first.

The trio said their goodbyes and left the apartment to take the lift to the ground floor. Bahamut shook his head at his lot in life. "Thanks for getting me out of there. Whenever Aunt Liv visits, Mom gets a little crazy."

"Shake it off, little man. It's rustic male-bonding time." Shuyin dropped a hand onto the boy's hooded head. "We'll build a fire the old fashioned way, hunt our dinner, keep our territory free of fiends, throw snowballs at your sister, write our names in the snow ..." He flipped his own hood over his head to match Bahamut's preferred look, which made the boy giggle.

"Oh, Yevon help me." Lenne walked behind them. "I think I'm going to need a day at the spa with a couple of girlfriends after this."

))((

Lenne enjoyed the hike to the mountains even more than she anticipated. After a few hours uphill with her backpack, it was only tolerable. In a few more hours, when they entered the snow zone, she endured it. But when they came to the dizzying heights of a maze of narrow, stone arcs she came to a stop. Hugging a large rock, she stopped to rest and refused to go any further. "I can't do it." She shook her head.

For most of the upper portion of the hike, Shuyin had stayed several paces ahead of her and her brother, making an easier path for them through the snow. When they stopped following, he returned to her side wondering what was wrong.

"She's afraid of heights," Bahamut informed their guardian.

"That … would have been helpful to know _before_ making plans to camp in the mountains."

"There's high, and then there's freaky high," Lenne complained.

Shuyin looked around at the rocks and snow and cast an eye toward the distant city below them. Then, he smirked in amusement. "Well, it _is_ a mountain."

"But I didn't realize that freaky high would be combined with such narrow paths!" Lenne looked at the precarious, criss-crossing, natural bridges ahead of them, fear written all over her face. "What if I step on ice? There's nothing to hold onto!"

Shuyin smiled and held out his hand. "Then hold onto me."

Lenne closed her eyes for a moment and tried not to think about the risk. Then, she reminded herself this was why she chose him as her guardian. If she couldn't trust him now, how could she trust him in the face of real danger? Steadying her nerves, she released the rock and clasped his hand in both of hers. Her eyes remained on him to avoid looking down.

"I won't let you fall. I promise." He looked past her shoulder to check on the boy. "How about you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Bahamut's voice didn't sound as certain, though. Talking about the high path was one thing, but walking across it without letting his eyes drift down was another matter.

"Good. Stay behind your sister, but not too close. And stay toward the center of the path, okay?" Once they both looked ready, Shuyin gave Lenne an assuring smile, squeezed her hand lightly, and led the way across the treacherous trails.

As they trudged through blustery winds and deep snow drifts, Lenne numbed herself to everything except Shuyin's presence. Only when they were out of the crossroads and on a much wider path did she turn her eyes toward the part of the mountain where the ronso village lay remotely visible, tucked inside the entrance to the mountain pass - off the trail in a hollow full of caves set between Gagazet's ridges. They encountered no wild animals or fiends, for which they were grateful. And by the time they reached the village, Lenne had taken the party lead.

Bowing in respect to the gathering of large, blue, lion-like people that followed them with suspicion or curiosity as soon as they entered the hollow, the small human summoner scanned their stern faces and primitive tribal markings for signs as to which one might be their clan leader. "Forgive us for entering ronso territory without invitation," she told them. "I would like to speak with Elder Kinan, if I may, … please. I am an emissary from the Temple of Yevon in Zanarkand come to speak to him on behalf of my city."

"Elder Kinan welcomes Zanarkand summoner." A large ronso with a black mane finally stepped forward holding a long, magical lance wrapped with various talismans. "Come. We talk." He turned and led the way to his own cavern.

Lenne licked her chapped lips, gave Shuyin a nervous glance, and took her brother's hand as she followed. Ducking inside the flap of patched coeurl skin over the entrance, she was disappointed to see that the inside of the cavern was about as bleak as the mountain itself. Though he was their Elder, Kinan had little in the means of food, storage, and blankets. But there was a fire pit in the middle of the floor, and right now that was all that mattered to her.

"Rest." Elder Kinan pointed to the fire pit, knowing the thin-skinned humans would be cold from their journey.

Lenne sat in front of the fire, but kept her coat on. Her two companions sat down to either side of her to warm themselves as well. "Thank you." Her hands and legs shuddered as they began the slow process of thawing.

"What does Zanarkand ask of ronso?" Kinan suspiciously asked, still standing.

"My name is Lenne, and High Summoner Yevon sends his best wishes that all is well for you and your people. He wants to know if you are aware that Zanarkand has broken away from the Founders' rule over Spira."

"Ronso live between Bevelle and Zanarkand. It is ronso's best interest to be aware. Bevelle and Zanarkand very quiet - preparations for coming storm. Ronso want no part in human conflict."

"Of course not," Lenne agreed with his concerns. "But, unfortunately, there might not be a way for you to stay out of it. High Summoner Yevon has refused the Founders attempts to restrict our use of magic because he believes their ultimate goal is to take us back to the planet where the colony ship originally came from. He believes the Founders want to destroy all magic and non-human life forms on Spira. That includes the ronso. If that happens, we could all die."

"How does Lord Yevon know this?"

"He found ancient documents that attest to it."

"Why does Yevon not share documents with rest of Spira to prove it?"

Lenne had no answer for that question, but she could guess. "Maybe he's afraid the Founders will try to destroy the evidence if they know he has it."

"Have you seen documents?"

Lenne reluctantly shook her head. "No. I'm … I'm just a summoner."

"Why do you trust Yevon's word?"

"Because High Summoner Yevon has done so much to help destroy the fiends that plague our city - not just our city, but all of Spira. Now he wants to use his gifts to keep Spira from being destroyed by the Founders."

"Ronso believe Spira belongs to Spirans, not other world."

Lenne smiled at his agreement. It was a step in the right direction for negotiations, at least.

"But, Bevelle is right to fear strong magic," Elder Kinan continued with a frown.

Well, so much for perfect harmony. She tried not to fret. "High Summoner Yevon wants the ronso to know he will do everything he can to protect _all_ living inhabitants of Spira that the Founders and their allies wish to destroy," Lenne assured the tribal Elder. "However, he's worried that Bevelle will try to shut down the mountain pass leading into Zanarkand. Is it possible for the ronso to keep it open, even if Bevelle tries to close it? We believe this would be in everyone's best interest, not just Zanarkand's."

"Zanarkand has always been peaceful neighbor. Ronso have no quarrel with Zanarkand. If Bevelle tries to close our road, ronso will have quarrel with Bevelle." His lips curled back from his fangs to emphasize it was a promise he intended to keep.

"May I make a suggestion for one way to keep the road open?"

"Speak."

"These mountains have one _uber nasty _network of rock roads and bridges out there." She exhaled and shook her head at the terrifying memory of the crossroads maze. Then, she paused to give Shuyin a glance of gratitude for getting her through it before turning her attention back to the ronso Elder. "Zanarkand has teleporters that would make travel through this region much easier."

Elder Kinan snarled. "Ronso will not have machina on Gagazet pass."

"The teleporters aren't machina. They work on magic. And they have been flawless between short distances. We could help you build teleportation gates along the paths to make the road safer and quicker to travel for everyone, ... especially the ronso."

"Teleportation gates not destroy mountain?"

"No. The mountain will be unharmed."

"Ronso have many hidden caverns in mountain. With teleport magic between them ..." Elder Kinan considered the idea for a long moment, then gave a firm nod. "Accepted. Ronso send someone with you to learn this magic. Gates, however, must be ronso design. Ronso will maintain gates."

"Very wise." Lenne smiled and removed her gloves, now that her hands were warm.

"In exchange for teleportation gates, roads of Gagazet and caverns of ronso are open to Zanarkand. Good faith for good neighbors."

"Thank you, Elder Kinan." She bowed deeply in her seated position on her knees.

"Summoner Lenne and guardians will stay with us for sunset meal?"

Bahamut sat up a little straighter with mild insult. "I'm not a guardian. I'm an apprentice summoner."

"Two summoners - one so young. Easy to sympathize with Bevelle's fear if young summoners all gain strong magic like Yevon."

Lenne didn't know what to say to that. She looked to her little brother and worried for a moment about his future, but then faced the Elder once more. "We would love to accept your invitation to stay for dinner, but I don't want to go back through those crossroads in the dark. Actually, I don't want to go back across them at all," she added under her breath.

"Wait here." Elder Kinan left the cavern without any further explanation.

As the fire snapped and crackled with comforting heat, Lenne chewed her lip. "I wonder how long the ronso will remain friends with Zanarkand if Bevelle does anything to their mountain home because of us."

"What still gets me is that Zanarkand never did anything to Bevelle to deserve the bad vibes in the first place, you know?" Shuyin grumbled.

"It doesn't matter that we've never harmed Bevelle," Bahamut answered, gazing into the fire, almost as if in a trance. "They don't like who we are, or how we live. They don't understand. Sometimes that's all it takes to make people hate."

"They hate us because they fear what we could do if they can't control us, rather than trusting us to control ourselves." Lenne leaned against Shuyin's shoulder, wrapping her arms around his arm and curling her knees toward his lap. The breeze that invaded the warmth of their little circle from the barely-covered doorway made her shiver. "That's why they keep upgrading their machina weapons. That's why they want to strip us of our magic. It's all about who is in control."

Shuyin sighed in disgust, removed his gloves, and held his hands close to the fire. "Well, I may not have gotten anything else out of my history and science classes, but Bevelle wouldn't even be here if the machina on Spira wasn't supported with the magic of the Farplane, right?"

Lenne blew on her cooling hands. "That doesn't matter to the Founders. They're safe on the home world, watching us from a distance. Only their governors in that tower on Mushroom Rock Road are brave enough to come out to a colony ship among the stars to make sure we're behaving. To them, we are nothing more than an experiment gone awry. They just want to reclaim what is rightfully theirs and cut their losses. But they can't drag us back to the home world while we're tainted with alien magic. We'd be a threat to Earth, if they did that." She lifted her chin and took note of the shadows playing across on Shuyin's face. He used to be so carefree. Sometimes, she wondered if she had done the right thing asking him to be her guardian, … drawing him into her worries. As she lifted a hand to his jaw, he closed his eyes and pressed his cheek into her hand.

Sighing in discouragement, he cupped a hand over hers. "Maybe someone should just go to the Founders Headquarters and smack them around a little to make them leave us alone," he sardonically suggested. Taking note of how cold her hand felt, he tucked it into his coat pocket with his own hand to warm it.

Lenne folded her fingers between his, but chuckled at his suggestion. "That would only make things worse. Then they'd _really_ want to do something to us. High Summoner Yevon is focused on winning allies, rather than fighting enemies, but I think it was unwise to withdraw from negotiations. He will need to step up measures to guard his temple in Bevelle now. I can't help but wonder what the summoners there think of his decision."

Elder Kinan entered the cavern and brought a younger ronso into the space with him. The younger male had a long white mane that he wore loose without the typical ronso braids and beads, and his eyes shone like pale green gems against the smoke-blue fur on his lion-like face. He wore multiple piercings in his catlike ears. Hefty bracers that glowed with magic covered the wrists of his muscular arms. And in spite of the frigid temperatures and snow, he wore only a purple and white loincloth. He carried a small pouch on his hip and a sturdy lance that also glowed with magic. "Elder Kinan's nephew, Zen," the older, larger ronso introduced him to the human trio. "Zen go with you to Zanarkand. Learn teleport magic. Bring it back to ronso."

Lenne removed her hand from Shuyin's coat pocket, stood, and bowed in greeting to the large beast-man that was assigned to join their party on the return trip home. "Nice to meet you, Zen. It will be an honor to escort you back to Zanarkand with us." She smiled as the young ronso gave a nod of acceptance. The party said their final good-byes to the ronso elder and his village. Then, with Bahamut and Zen in tow, she followed Shuyin as he led the way back to the dreaded mountain trail.

))((

As dusk settled in, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped to a very uncomfortable degree. Considering they were losing light and the weather was getting harsh, Lenne seemed to be more afraid of the treacherous crossroads than before. But this time, she didn't argue. With silent determination, she grasped Shuyin's arm and tried not to look down. She was ready to trust his careful pace and sense of direction to guide them safely to the other side. As before, Shuyin checked behind him to see how her brother was doing first, but this time Zen had Bahamut's coat shoulder clutched firmly in his large fist, and his long, sharp toenails dug into the snow and ice like spiked cleats. The boy wasn't going to be blown off of the mountain if the ronso had anything to say about it.

Shuyin was careful choosing his footing and pace as he led the way back over the natural bridges. Midway through the crossing, however, they came upon a couple of very large monsters with huge horns blocking their path. "What the -"

"Behemoths," Zen identified them. As big as the ronso was, the behemoths were twice his size.

"Whatever they are, they're not alone," Lenne added, noting the presence of pyreflies swarming around them. "They're possessed by fiends. I should summon an aeon."

"The path is too narrow. Shield your brother." Shuyin drew his sword and passed his backpack to the boy to free his own movement.

Bahamut cast a magical shield around himself and looked to his sister with fear. The ronso didn't wait for orders. He readied his lance and charged, slicing a large gash across the arms of one of the monsters. The behemoth raked a clawed hand across Zen's chest and knocked him backwards. But, digging his toenails into the ice and snow to stop his skid, the ronso lunged forward again, draining some of the monster's life energy to heal himself. Lenne cast a shield spell to aid him.

While one behemoth was occupied with the ronso, the other came down on the blitzball player with a blast of electrical magic. Shuyin cursed at the unexpected attack, dodged the bolt, spun around, and immediately hopped back within range to strike from behind. He cut into the behemoth's ribs, but it wasn't enough to take him out of the fight. As the bi-pedal creature dropped into a quadruped stance, it lowered its head, hunched its strength behind its mass, and head-butted Shuyin, tossing him into the air.

"_NO!_" Fearing she had already lost him, Lenne ran after him. "Shuyin!"

He hit the ground, rolled, and slid, but thrust his longsword into the tightly packed snow just in time to anchor himself from slipping over the edge of the stone bridge. He was fortunate he had not been gored by one of the long horns.

The summoner immediately cast a protective shell around her guardian and grabbed his arm to pull him away from the ledge, when the behemoth that attacked him hit her in the back. Lenne grunted in pain and collapsed in the snow.

"Lenne!" Shuyin's eyes darkened as he scrambled to his feet and jerked his sword free. He threw himself at the monster with multiple attacks, knocking it away from her with each hit.

The summoner clenched fist-fulls of snow in her frozen fingers and pushed herself up to see what her guardian was doing. Then, she began casting again. As Zen's lance pierced the heart of the behemoth he was fighting, and he watched the pyreflies disperse around it, Bahamut turned his attention to the blitzball player and also began casting.

A strange sensation overwhelmed Shuyin as both spells enveloped him, but he ignored it to keep up the relentless attacks. He didn't notice that his hits were cutting deeper and faster than before, to the point where the fiend had no chance to hit back. The behemoth rose on its hind legs to tower over him, but was weakened enough from its many wounds that it stumbled. With a final yell of frustration, Shuyin leaped high above him and cleaved the creature from shoulder to waist. Landing, he jerked his sword free and kicked the beast over the edge of the bridge, sending the dissolving body and its pyreflies into the dark, rocky depths below. Without stopping to rest, he stabbed the sword back into the snow and crouched before Lenne. Too breathless to speak, he clutched her shoulders and put his forehead to hers to let her know he was glad she was okay. He could hear the crunch of footsteps in the snow behind him as Zen and Bahamut drew near.

The ronso knelt by the summoner's side and looked her over for obvious injuries. There was no blood, but she was clearly still in pain.

"It's my back." She winced and reached behind herself to where it hurt.

"Heal yourself," Shuyin told her, still fighting to catch his breath.

"Not until we're somewhere safe. I don't want to waste magic, in case we're attacked again."

"We'll be camping at the hot spring. You can do it there."

She nodded in agreement, but grunted in discomfort.

Shuyin sheathed his sword, then moved in front of her and knelt with his back to her. "We've got to make it to the hot spring before it becomes pitch black out here. We might be able to go faster if you close your eyes and let me carry you through this area." He waited for her to climb onto his back.

"Zen stronger. Zen carry Summoner Lenne," the ronso offered.

Shuyin stubbornly shook his head. "No. I'm her guardian, but she got hurt because I let my guard down. I'll carry her." Still waiting, he looked over his shoulder. "Lenne ..."

Though she hated to see him so hard on himself, gratitude was more appropriate than arguing about it. Lenne draped her arms around his neck and leaned forward against his back. "Thank you, Shuyin."

"The first strike should have been more critical to prevent him from striking back." Shuyin analyzed his mistake as he hooked his forearms under her knees at his waist. Standing with care, he shifted her weight until they were both comfortable enough to continue the journey. He felt a small kiss on his ear before she rested her cheek against it, and his shoulders relaxed with a sigh of relief that she had forgiven him. Exhausted from the battle, but thankful everyone was still alive, he glanced toward Zen and Bahamut. Zen lifted Shuyin's backpack from the boy's arms, then the party of four continued over the crossroads in the deepening darkness.


	17. Chapter 17: New Friend

Chapter 17: New Friend

Crouched in the snow near the lamplight, Bahamut stared at the pole pieces Shuyin handed to him, but then fitted them together and into slip sleeve of the tent canvas. "Very simple," he announced. But when he stood, his assembled end of the frame fell apart. Frowning at the contraption, he looked to Shuyin about what to do next.

The blitzball player chuckled in response. "Told ya. You have to hold the frame up first, _then_ put the canvas over it."

"Zen sees no point in making thin shelter when stone cavern is here," the ronso stated from his perch on a rock as he watched the two humans.

"Let's just say it's tradition," Shuyin answered, still holding his end of the tent frame as he waited for Bahamut to finish his.

"Human tradition makes no sense. Zen will hunt." Shaking his head at their folly, the ronso grabbed his lance and headed up one of the winding paths away from the place they had chosen for their campsite.

"Yeah, because wearing a loincloth in the snow is so much more logical," he muttered under his breath. It was dark, but the mountain was the ronso's native environment, and Shuyin was dead tired. So he didn't argue about the hunt being part of the tradition, too.

Bahamut pieced the poles together one more time and lifted the frame quickly to keep them together. "I got it!"

"Okay, grab the canvas."

Wishing he had a third hand, Bahamut reached for it at the same time as Shuyin, and gave it a toss over the top of the frame. His end didn't quite make it, but Shuyin's did. And as soon as his end was secure, the blitz player came to the boy's aid to show him how to bend the pole to punch it into the sleeve. The tent stood. "We did it!"

"Not yet. Get that mallet. We have to stake it, so it doesn't blow away." Shuyin slipped the rain fly over the top, then grabbed the stakes and began setting them in the ring pins. "Hit it real hard."

Bahamut pounded the spike into the ground with all his might, but he didn't make much progress before he grew tired and passed the mallet back to Shuyin. "The ground is frozen. This is going to take forever. But you're stronger than I am, and I know how to make you even stronger, so ... you should do it."

"Oh yeah? How is that?" Shuyin accepted the mallet and began hammering the spike into the ground with a more focused effort.

Bahamut began casting a spell, and the next hit slammed the stake into the frozen ground up to the rope eyelet. The boy smiled to himself at his own cunning, while the blitzball player marveled at his unusual feat.

"How …? What did you do to me?" Shuyin tried to tug the thing back out, but it wouldn't budge. "Oh, that's going to be fun to pull out tomorrow."

"It's a spell that increases strength."

Shuyin blinked at him. "That's cheating."

Bahamut blinked back. "Should I not use it? It helped you kill the behemoth."

The blitz player drew back, remembering something. "Is that what that weird feeling was?"

"No. If you felt magic in your body, Lenne must have been doing something to you. Strength magic is used to enchant weapons. I cast it on your sword and the hammer - not you. But you'll need to have the enchantment done by a mage if you want something like that to be permanent."

"It was a big help. Thanks." Shuyin stared thoughtfully at the enchanted mallet for a moment, then set the next stake into the ring pin and drove it into the frozen ground with one hit as well. When the rest of the stakes were done, and the tent was completely secured, he dropped the mallet into the bag with the other tent supplies and handed Bahamut the ropes to finish tying it down. "Let's go tell your sister it's done."

Bahamut grinned, tied his last knot, and grabbed Shuyin's hand before running into the cavern. "Lenne! Lenne! We got the tent up!"

The summoner had sought comfort for her back in the hot spring, but immediately sank further under the water when surprised by their entrance. "Okay. I'll be out in just a minute." She peered over her shoulder, waiting for them to leave first.

"Woah! Woah!" Shuyin pulled the boy back and folded his hands over his eyes.

"Hey! What gives?" Bahamut grabbed the blitz player's wrists to try to pry free, but Shuyin was used to handling slippery blitzballs. Even without blitz gloves, there was no way to escape him once he had a grip.

"Things that might scar you for life if you see them," Shuyin answered.

"Then why aren't you covering your own eyes?"

"Beeecaaaause …" He drew a blank on excuses for once.

Bahamut sighed in disgust. "If you want to be alone with her, all you have to do is say so."

"So."

"Fine." He pulled away as Shuyin released him.

"Go make the campfire like I showed you at the beach. And no cheating with magic, either!"

The boy rolled his eyes at having to pal around with his sister's boyfriend at times like that, but overall he was glad his sister had chosen Shuyin. If not for him, Bahamut knew he would never be able to come on adventures like this. So, he trudged back out of the cavern, alone. Approaching the tent, Bahamut crouched near their prepared spot for the campfire. Shuyin had bought special kindling back in Zanarkand at an outdoor sports store because he knew there would be no wood to collect in the snowy peaks. The snow had been cleared away to make space for cooking whatever was caught for dinner, and the tools to start the fire had been set beside it. Bahamut lifted the tools and began an attempt to start the flames the old fashioned way - the way Shuyin had taught him on the beach when they grilled their fish - but then he looked back toward the entrance to the hot spring to be sure no one was looking. Shrugging, he dropped the tools to cast a fire spell instead. Satisfied with himself, he sat down and huddled under his blanket to wait for the ronso's return.

))((

Inside the cavern, Shuyin was amused at how Lenne propped her long hair outside of the pool's edge on the ground in attempt to keep it dry, rather than face freezing temperatures and a wet head with no hairdryer. "Forget to bring a swim suit?" he teasingly asked as he removed his coat and gloves and placed them next to her pile of clothes. Crouching on his toes behind her, he playfully coiled a ponytail on top of her head until he saw the red bikini ties that answered his question. "Ah, rats. I thought you were slinking under that water for cover."

She giggled at his disappointment. "Well, I wouldn't want to scar you for life. I was soaking my back."

The playful expression faded into concern. "How is it?"

"It's just a bruise now." She waved it off like it was no big deal.

Her dismissal let him know he was right about her odd behavior when he entered. She was hiding something. Suspiciously, gently, he pushed her head forward until he could see her back in the water. A black and blue mark larger than both of his fists put together colored her mid-to-lower spine. He couldn't help but groan at the sight of it.

"It doesn't feel as bad as it looks," she immediately assured him. "It's still a little tender, but the cure spell took away the serious damage, and I'll finish healing it after we're home. No need to waste magic yet, … just in case."

Shuyin let her hair fall to her shoulders and sat down on the rock floor behind her. "If I had aimed for something like its head or its heart ... Every hit is supposed to count toward preventing a counter hit, but I took a random swipe without thinking about what I was doing, and then couldn't get back into the fight fast enough."

Ignoring the fact that her hair was in the water now, she turned to face him and cupped a wet, steamy hand over his mouth. "Shuyin, … sometimes bad things just happen. Okay? The behemoth did this to me. You did what you could to stop him." The half of her hair that was now in the water spread around her like a lily frond. "I'm not going to let you be my guardian, if you blame yourself every time I get hurt."

He moved her hand to uncover his mouth. "I'm supposed to keep you from getting hurt."

"No. You're supposed to help me accomplish and come back from my mission. And you did."

"My wrong decision could have killed you."

"I wouldn't be here if you hadn't done something right." She could laugh a little about her own fear now that it was over. "In fact, I probably wouldn't have even made it over those awful bridges. Bahamut certainly wouldn't have been able to carry me over them." Her brows rose, and she smiled.

Shuyin removed his boots and set them aside with his coat and gloves. "Bahamut said he enchanted my sword to increase my strength against the behemoth."

"Really? I thought that was an unusually impressive kill."

"But I felt something else, too." He tucked his pairs of socks into his boots. "Did you use magic on me without telling me?"

She folded her arms across the top of the shallow pool's wall. "I cast a haste spell to quicken your movements. I haven't done anything like that during your training because I didn't want to interfere while you worked on your own skills, but in a real fight summoners are trained to support aeons and guardians like that. It's the least I can do in exchange for you becoming my sword and shield. You're not mad, … are you?"

"Nah, I … kinda liked it," he hesitantly admitted. "Felt like a massive adrenaline rush that slowed down time so I could think about what I was doing. I guess I just have to trust that you won't do anything funky to me in the process. Maybe you should show me what you can do, so I know what to expect next time."

"Okay. And maybe you should learn a few magic tricks of your own to compliment your fighting style. I could teach you a few spells, you know." She crooked her finger for him to come closer, as if sharing a secret.

A wry smile touched his lips. "I'm game." Shifting his position to squat balancing on his toes, he placed one hand on the slippery rock edge and leaned over the water to receive a small kiss. He had to brace himself with both hands as she wrapped her arms around his neck, but the added weight threw the awkward balance off and pulled him into the shallow pool. Up to his neck in hot water, his body began an extreme thaw. He grimaced at the merciless sensation, but the painful tingling soon became deliciously relaxing.

Lenne tried to hide a guilty smile, so he didn't recognize it as a prank until she snickered.

Shuyin lifted an arm to see his soaked sleeves, but chuckled in spite of it. "_Why?_"

"I wanted you to join me." She grinned and raised a prune-like finger to touch the new, silver Abes earring she had not seen until now under his wet hair.

"You couldn't wait five minutes? I was working on keeping my clothes dry for a reason, you know." He removed his sword and unsheathed the blade to pour water out of the scabbard. Then, he replaced it and set it on the ground next to his coat, while giving her a flat expression that made her laugh.

"Too many layers were taking too long." She playfully splashed a little water into his face.

He blinked the water from his eyes and ran a hand over his face. "You do realize this means I get to sit in here _where it's warm_, while you go out there _where it's cold_ to get me some dry clothes from my backpack."

"No, I have to stay right here where it's safe. There's fiends out there."

"Even little pools can have water fiends." He splashed her back.

"Hm, this water fiend wouldn't happen to be signed on with the Abes would he?" She giggled and swept her hand through the water sending a wave toward him.

Laughing at her teasing and deciding he'd had enough of it, he stood and sloshed armfuls of water over her. Lenne screamed and shielded herself, but as she tried to escape the pool, he grabbed her around the waist and fell back into the water with her. "Oh, and he tackles hard! Looks like it's going to be one to nothing for Team Shuyin, folks! Lenne has no escape from that fantastic block! She hates blitzball, but look at her laughing now."

))((

Outside the hot spring, Zen came back with a fresh bandersnatch draped over his back and found Bahamut huddled at the fire by himself. "Shuyin not here?"

"He's hogging the hot water with my sister." Bahamut sourly thumbed over his shoulder toward the cavern entrance where loud laughter, shouts, and splashes could be heard.

"Bahamut is cold?"

The boy nodded.

"Ronso have fail-proof way to make others share." Zen set his kill near the fire and bent to scoop a large handful of snow, packing it into a ball. Considering the size of his hands, this snowball was tremendous.

Catching onto the ronso's idea, Bahamut grinned and copied his actions. When both of them were armed, they entered the cavern on silent feet and fired without warning. The ronso's large, frozen missile hit between Shuyin's shoulder blades, and Bahamut's two smaller ones hit the back of his head and Lenne's shoulder. Both of them gasped in shock as the snow clung to them before it melted and dropped into the pool.

"You better be glad I had two shirts and thermals on or that would have stung like crazy!" Shuyin shouted when he saw who had done it. Water-logged layers and all, he jumped out of the pool and raced after them.

Zen quickly ushered the laughing boy back outside.

Shuyin paused to scoop up a few snowballs of his own and tagged Bahamut in the back with a couple of quick missiles. But when he scooped another for the ronso, Zen moved to stand before him - an impenetrable force with massive, folded arms and a snarl. Shuyin changed his mind. One final snowball sailed into the back of Shuyin's head from the opposite direction, though. Cringing at the frozen sensation as it slid down his neck into the back of his wet shirts, he whirled to find Lenne standing inside the entrance of the cavern.

"You know, red bikinis kinda paint a bulls-eye on the space between the top and bottom." He started to aim the snowball meant for the ronso at her, instead.

"Ah-ah-ah ..." She wagged a finger in warning then wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver. "You promised you wouldn't hit back, remember?"

In the flickering firelight, Bahamut giggled at the way a thick fog rose off of Shuyin's steamy hot clothing and head. "You look like some kind of angry ghost."

Zen looked down at the human male's bare feet, which were bright red in the snow. "Shuyin cold?"

"Shuyin's very cold!" the blitzball player answered with a visible shudder.

"Then Shuyin share hot water with little brother."

Shuyin looked down at the snowball in his hand, realizing that's what the attack was all about. "Okay, fine!" He shivered again, but then shrugged. "What the hell." He pitched his last snowball at the ronso, then sprinted away. Scooping Lenne into his arms, he ran back into the cavern. She laughed and screamed again as a big splash echoed from the interior.

The ronso dusted the snow from his chest with one brush of a hand, and placed a large, blue hand on the boy's shoulder, pointing Bahamut in the direction of the hot spring. "Humans have no fur. Stay in hot water. Zen tend fire and cook fresh meat."

Bahamut ran inside the cavern and stripped down to his shorts to jump into the water with his sister and "big brother" for the splash fest.

The ronso's lion-like face split into a toothy grin at the way the humans played - much more lively than his own people. But he shook his head at how the nearly hairless creatures had no sense in protecting themselves from the mountain's elements. Walking to the tent, he pulled the entire thing out of its staked position. Collapsing it under his arm, frame and all, he carried it out of the wind and snow into the warm, steamy cavern. Then, he returned to the campfire to clean and cook his prey to share with them.

))((

Later that night, dressed in dry layers and wrapped in a blanket, Shuyin ate his dinner of roasted bandersnatch, dried fruit, and hard cheese as he reclined against Lenne's knees at the campfire. Lenne and her brother were also redressed in dry layers and wrapped in blankets, but the ronso remained stoic and bare in the drifting flurries. The wind had died down, at least. They had all been thankful for that.

"Elder Kinan said there were hidden caverns in these mountains," Lenne spoke over the snapping and popping of the fire. "Are there more hot springs like this one?" Setting down her plate, she curled cold fingers around her mug of hot coffee.

"Many hidden caverns - enough to shelter all of ronso and half of Zanarkand," Zen informed her. "Some have hot springs. Tunnels run deep into mountain, like maze. If ronso are attacked, winding warrens will protect our weak while warriors fight in mountain pass. Hidden ruins above clouds, too, but few dare climb to summit."

Shuyin stopped chewing and tilted his chin toward the ronso. "Ruins on top of the mountain?"

"Ancient watch tower - some say First Age." Zen pointed toward the summit behind them.

Shuyin sat up with interest. "Can we go see it?"

"Down, boy." Lenne clapped a hand over his shoulder and pulled him back down before he could get too curious. Then, she pulled her blanket closer around her as she chewed on the last piece of greasy, smoky meat from her plate. "I've had enough adventure for one day, thank you. Besides, you have training to return to, and your blitzball championship tournament is coming up soon, isn't it? We don't need to invite trouble by exploring old ruins on top of a mountain."

Zen's tail twitched. "Shuyin plays blitzball?"

"Zanarkand Abes." He answered, casting his leftover scraps into the flames.

"Zen watched games when visiting Zanarkand once before. Remember Abes. Good team. Not much interest for blitzball among ronso, though. No place for sphere pool on Gagazet."

Shuyin nodded at the ronso's logic. "True. But ronso could train and play somewhere else - like Zanarkand. As big as you are, there's no way anyone could sneak past your blocks and tackles."

"Ronso look stupid in human uniforms."

Shuyin snickered at a mental image of the ronso wearing his uniform. Lenne and Bahamut apparently had the same humorous picture in their minds because within seconds all three of them were giggling at the stoic ronso. "You couldn't fit one leg into my shorts if you tried. I'm serious, though, you should ask about the sphere pool. I'm sure the stadium management would rent it out to the ronso the same as they do to us."

"Ronso never play. Only watch."

"Well, how about I take you in while you're visiting? Let you see what it's like to play."

Lenne chuckled. "What are you trying to do? Drown him? You could probably take him to the practice pool, but the sphere pool would be too claustrophobic for someone not used to holding their breath that long."

Zen's pale green eyes lit up at Shuyin's offer. His ears flattened against his head and he nodded in acceptance of the invitation. "Hot springs sometimes run deep. Zen good at holding breath under water."

Shuyin grinned. "Sphere pool is it, then."

"Oh gosh!" Lenne straightened, nearly dropping Shuyin's back in her shift. "I didn't even think about lodging. Where will he stay? I don't want him to have to pay for a room at a hotel."

"Maybe there will be a vacant guest room at the temple for him," Bahamut suggested, licking his fingers. "This trip was partially their idea, though they weren't counting on a ronso coming back with us."

"He can stay at my place," Shuyin offered. "I've got a spare room. I don't know if he'll fit in it, but he's welcome to try."

"Are you sure?" Lenne asked, not wanting to inconvenience him for the sake of her mission.

He shrugged. "I don't mind. Course I may make work on the engine and swab the decks since he unstaked my tent, and now I have to put it up all over again before I can sleep in it. I live on a houseboat, by the way." Shuyin informed him and waited for inevitable gush of awe.

"Zen not afraid of water. Ronso not afraid of anything."

Not the typical response Shuyin expected, but that in itself made him chuckle.

"Ah, but you haven't seen his clutter." Lenne added, then sipped some of her coffee.

))((

The next morning, Lenne woke huddled into a tight ball between Shuyin's chest and arms. She shivered and tried to snuggle closer into his cozy fleece clothing for warmth, then smiled to herself and stretched her legs to hook his ankle between her feet. Normally the ticklish sensation woke him, but this time she had three pairs of socks to compete with. "Darn these layers," she grumbled to herself.

Easing up onto one elbow, she looked over her shoulder. Beneath their shared pile of blankets in the tight quarters, Bahamut's back was to her, but his ribs rose and fell with a gentle rhythm that let her know he was still sleeping rather soundly, too. Zen had slept outside of the tent due to his size and preference for the cavern itself. She faced Shuyin again, gave him a soft kiss, and snickered quietly at his sleepy response. "Good morning," she whispered, when his eyes finally opened as thin slits.

Shuyin smiled and slid his hand over her waist to draw her closer.

"No, no, no," she whispered, tapping a finger to his nose to stop him. "I think the sun's up outside the cavern. It seems brighter."

"You woke me up to tell me that?" He frowned in complaint and rolled his back to her.

"These sleeping bags are useless against a rock floor, and I'm freezing my backside off in spite of all the blankets." She grabbed the back of his heavy shirt and buried her cold, red nose into it. "Camping was fun, but going home now would be even more fun, wouldn't it?" she hinted.

"I offered to warm you up," he drowsily muttered.

She frowned at the back of his shaggy, blond head, then used one hand to pull all three shirts away from his back, so she could plant the other ice-cold hand into the middle of his insulated bare skin, thus demonstrating one point in her complaint.

"Holy shhhh -!" Shuyin jerked away from her as much as the zipped trio of sleeping bags would allow and turned to block her before she could perform the same stunt on his chest. "Your fingers are like ice!" He shuddered as the chill spread across his entire torso with discomfort.

She giggled at his reaction. "See? I'm freezing." The smile turned into mild disappointment. "And my back is hurting again. I'm sorry, Shu, but I really think I need to go home and finish healing it."

He quieted with what appeared to be sympathy. "Or I could just throw you back in the hot spring."

She reached for his shirts again and with only a brief tussle, her icy hand hit his ribs. "Okay! Okay!" He scrambled and crawled out of his side of the sleeping bags to get away from her. "Home it is." Rising to his knees, he bumped his head against the low top of the tent, but quickly pulled his shirts back into place to shield himself from another attack.

"I don't want to spoil your camping trip, but ..." She sat up with a wince as she put a hand to the bruised area on her spine.

"No problem. What kind of guardian would I be if I didn't want what was best for you?" He gave her a sleepy smile. Then, stretching a leg over her, he placed a foot on Bahamut's back and rolled the boy back and forth in a comical manner. "Hey, you." He didn't stop until the kid rolled over on his own and gave him a grumpy face. "Your sister's ready to go home. Start packing, or I'm packing you in the tent bag with the rest of the gear."

The boy rubbed his sleepy eyes. "Can we come back again without her?"

Shuyin chuckled and began unzipping their combined fortification of warmth against the nighttime lows. "After the playoffs, okay? Count on it. Hey, maybe we can check out those ruins."

Bahamut nodded in eager agreement as he sat up and yawned.

Lenne unzipped both middle portions of their sleeping bags and began folding and rolling the blankets. "We can take him home first, and I'll just shower and finish taking care of my back at mom's place. Then, I can come by your place to pick up Zen and take him to meet High Summoner Yevon."

"Why not let's all go to the temple first? Then I can take Bahamut and Zen back to the harbor with me, and you can crash at your place for the rest of the day."

"I am _not_ presenting myself to the high summoner looking like this."

"Well, ... look at the bright side." Shuyin chuckled to himself. "For once, no one will recognize you without your disguise." As soon as he said it, he had to dodge the swipe aimed at him.

))((

Once they were back inside the city limits, the party of four opted to go to Shuyin's houseboat first, and he showed Zen the lower level bedroom that used to belong to his parents. The ronso barely fit on the bed diagonally, but he seemed pleased to have such an interesting place to stay.

"Oh, and … a little gift." The blitzball player ran back to his own room and grabbed his complete red-and-black-checkered uniform and a spare blitzball he had lying around. He took both of them back down to the ronso and presented them to him. "There you go. Something to refashion into a new loincloth for the sphere pool later," he joked. "Welcome to Zanarkand."

Zen grinned - something that almost frightened Shuyin since he'd never seen a ronso grin before. "Zen never forget Shuyin's generosity." He thumped his fist over his heart, then thumped Shuyin in a similar manner, nearly knocking him backwards into the wall.

Shuyin mouthed an "ow" and rubbed his chest where he'd received the friendly punch. Maybe inviting the ronso to play blitzball wasn't a good idea after all. He began to doubt whether he would survive his tackle.

After hot showers and a change into normal attire, the three humans of the group were happy to set aside their heavy packs and escort their ronso guest to the temple.

))((

At the Zanarkand temple, they presented themselves to the summoners in charge, Lenne explained the ronso's presence, and the party was escorted to the office of High Summoner Yu Yevon himself. Shuyin had never met the man in person, but he looked exactly like he did in any holograph or com sphere image he'd seen. Dressed in flowing, immaculate robes of white and green, Yevon wore his long black hair tied in a jeweled cuff that hung low at his shoulders, while loose tendrils fell free at his ears. A thin, black goatee adorned his mouth and chin, and his narrow eyes were an unusual lavender color and showed the stress of his political burdens in the form of dark, sullen circles. This was an incredibly intelligent man - one that almost radiated power to anyone standing in his presence.

Lenne introduced her guardian and guest, and Yevon greeted them warmly. Then, he listened quietly without interruption as she summarized their excursion to Mt. Gagazet. When she finished, Yevon smiled and seated himself at a tea table, gesturing for everyone else to do the same. "Your actions speak well of you as a temple ambassador, Lady Lenne."

"Thank you, sir." She bowed respectfully before taking the chair opposite him. She gestured, in turn, for the ronso to sit next to her. Bahamut and Shuyin took their places on the sofa across from them.

"I am more than happy to allow Zen to train in teleportation magic here at the temple. I think having such gates in the mountain pass will benefit all of Spira. Allowing the ronso to create and keep watch over them, ensures their own safety, so that there is no breech of trust. At least not on Zanarkand's behalf," he added with a hint of remorse that he could not make promises for the governors of other cities. "I will leave our guest in your capable hands, in terms of tutoring and accommodations. Let us know if he requires anything during his stay."

Lenne smiled and nodded in return. "I will, sir."

"And what of your experience on this journey, apprentice?" He turned his attention to Bahamut. "What were your impressions of the ronso?"

Bahamut looked to Zen and smiled. "They are a people of action more than words, but their actions speak for themselves. They are reasonable and honorable. Their lives are humble, but their heritage is proud, ... like the mountain that is a part of them. We can trust them to protect it above all else. It will be good to have the ronso as friends and allies."

Yevon smiled again. "Well-spoken. A summoner must learn to seek the connections between the people and their land, … even here on Spira. Did you enjoy this kind of assignment?"

Bahamut grinned at Shuyin. "Absolutely!"

Yevon took note of who the boy directed his enthusiasm toward and nodded in gratitude to the guardian who apparently made a difference. Then, he turned his attention back to Lenne. "There is one other thing that I wanted to speak with you about before you go. I have decided that the temples require a stronger defense in these uncertain times. I am seeking summoners for special assignments. You, Lenne, are among my most gifted students. Your handling of this task confirms my thoughts that you are capable of doing something a little more challenging. Instead of continuing as emissary, would you be interested in accompanying my daughter, Yunalesca, to one of the other temples to become an honored guardian stationed there?"

Lenne's eyes lit with excitement at the idea of the promotion. "Which one?"

"I believe you are our best candidate to handle the defense of the temple in Bevelle."

Shuyin's heart skipped a beat. "Bevelle? You're sending her away to Bevelle?"

Yevon turned his attention to the guardian. "You think she is not capable of this task?"

"No, sir. I mean, I think she's capable. But ... Bevelle?"

Yevon shifted in his padded chair and stared at Shuyin as if visualizing something else for a moment. "I recognize you now. You're Jecht's son. You go by a different name in the sport."

Shuyin had not considered that the high summoner might be a blitzball fan. "Um, … yeah."

"Why do you not want her to go to Bevelle? She can take you along if she chooses, you know. Of course, … that would mean giving up your blitzball career here."

Shuyin didn't know whether he was really being invited to speak his mind or not, but he decided this was important enough to risk it. "Bevelle despises magic. I think it would be stupid to send her in there as a summoner against their wishes."

Lenne frowned, reminding him to mind his manners because of who he was talking to.

Yevon didn't seem upset to hear the blunt opinion, but he studied him with an intensity that made Shuyin uncomfortable. "Well, I trust you won't physically assault me if I disagree with you about the 'stupid' part." A small smile touched his lips at his own reference to the incident with the drunk. "You are correct that the Bevelle temple is in a tight spot at the moment, but that is exactly why it needs someone like Lenne to protect it. A summoner takes her job knowing it means having to defend others who cannot defend themselves - a vow guardians should also be very familiar with. If you are not willing to fight by your summoner's side, then you should step out of her way."

This time Shuyin frowned. "Wouldn't it be safer to pull all summoners out of Bevelle?"

"And let Bevelle and the rest of Spira fall prey to the Founders' intentions toward us? Eventually, we will all suffer if we take that path."

"But _you're_ not the one guarding the temple."

"Shuyin," Lenne scolded, worried he was going to offend the High Summoner.

Yevon met Lenne's worry and Shuyin's concern with a tempered nod. "It's alright. Perhaps it would ease your guardian's fears to know I've decided to place a new aeon within each temple - one the local summoners can use in their own defense. Yunalesca is currently in Besaid creating an aeon for that temple, so you don't need to make a decision right now. Give it some thought. But I offer you the position as Bevelle's most honored protector because I believe you are capable of handling one of our most delicate situations. We need someone to protect the summoners from the Founders, while continuing to protect the city itself from fiends."

"I ..." Lenne looked at Shuyin. Whatever decision she made for own life now affected his, too, and he clearly wasn't happy with this.

"You must be fully committed to this position if you take it, Lenne," Yevon added. "Give me your answer only when you are certain of it. Just remember that the summoners within the Bevelle temple are in danger until it is fortified."

Though Yu Yevon seemed friendly enough, Shuyin thought he understood now why Bevelle disliked dealing with this man. There was no way to manipulate him.


	18. Chapter 18: A Day to Never Forget

Chapter 18: A Day to Never Forget

Clearly troubled, Shuyin set the heavy backpack down on Lenne's sofa, but then lingered over it hesitant to say what was bothering him. "I don't want you to go to Bevelle." He hadn't said one word about their discussion with the high summoner since leaving the temple, until now. Bahamut had been returned to his mother and his aunt. Zen was napping at the houseboat. So, Shuyin had offered to help Lenne carry her camping gear back to her apartment with her. The offer was only an excuse so he could talk to her about the possible transfer to the Bevelle temple, but talking about it in private now was almost as uncomfortable now as _not_ talking about it while in the presence of others. "I think you should stay in Zanarkand. This is your home. This is where your singing career is. You've got fans here. Your family is here. You've got everything you need here in Zanarkand."

Lenne dropped her key-card into the basket on the table and closed her front door. Kicking off her shoes next to his in the entry, she sighed and padded across the living room to where he stood. "Everything including you?"

Shuyin winced, knowing how this must sound to her, and his tone softened in apology. "I'm not asking you to stay for me."

She sat down on her sofa and tucked a foot underneath her leg. "Then I have to consider going where I'm needed. The summoners at the other temples are newer to the rites of summoning than the ones here in Zanarkand. Lord Yevon's been working with us most of our lives, but he's only set up the other temples within the last five years. He probably needs me to teach them how to summon the new aeon that will be placed there. And until they learn how to do that themselves, they will need a summoner strong enough to do it for them. If that aeon is their only defense should the temple be ..." She paused not wanting to admit the element of danger involved in the promotion. "Someone needs to defend the defenders of Bevelle. If there are no summoners, the city will be overrun with fiends."

"Why does it have to be you? I don't like the way he talked about it."

She tilted her chin. "The way he talked about it?"

"The way he smiled and flattered you … The way he told me I could go along _if_ you wished to take me, but then told me to otherwise get out of your way. He doesn't want me to go with you."

Lenne quirked a brow at this unusual complaint. "He wasn't flattering me. He was letting me know I did a good job on this assignment, so he trusts me to do another. And he was only being honest with you about the teamwork necessary between summoner and guardian when changes takes place."

"It's just ..." Shuyin ran a hand over his head and paced lightly as he tried hard to find the right words. This was important to her, so if he said the wrong thing it would hurt. "It sounds suspicious, you know? Asking a summoner to be a guardian ... Didn't something about that creep you out?"

"Creep me out? This is High Summoner Yevon we're talking about."

"I just can't shake the feeling he's trying to take advantage of you."

She snorted in disbelief. "Shuyin, what planet did you just come from? He's old enough to be my father. And I'm going to be taking the trip with his daughter, not him."

He frowned in disgust. "Not that kind of advantage."

"Are you jealous?"

"No! " He shook his head in firm denial and dropped onto the sofa beside her. "Look, I know it's a promotion and an honor and all that, but you said it yourself. Summoners aren't supposed to be warriors. That's why you have guardians. As your guardian, I'm supposed to let you know when something feels wrong, … right?" His brows rose in plea. "And you're supposed to trust me."

She couldn't understand why he felt so opposed to this. "Would you go with me, if I asked?"

"I'll go wherever you want, even if it means quitting the Abes. Just please don't take this position at Bevelle."

It bothered her he would feel so strongly about this without good reason. "I'll ask a few more questions before I make a decision. Okay?"

Folding his arms around her, he kissed her forehead and sighed with relief, but her answer didn't make him feel any better about it. "Take care of your back and get some rest. If you need anything let me know, okay?"

She nodded, kissed him, and let him go as he stood.

Not knowing what else to say, and feeling horribly confused about his own sudden flux of emotion about it, Shuyin headed to the door, slipped into his sneakers, and let himself out of her apartment. As he took the lift down to the ground floor he wondered if he was imagining things. Yevon had been nice to them, and there hadn't been anything offensive in his treatment of Lenne - not really. As he walked to the "snake" station, he asked himself if maybe he was jealous. Yu Yevon was the most powerful man in Zanarkand - possibly all of Spira. Lenne clearly had a lot of respect for him, and for good reason. That was certainly more than he had to offer. As Shuyin took the invisible, high-speed transport from the mainland to the harbor, he questioned whether he was being selfish. Of course he wanted her to stay in Zanarkand for his sake! He just couldn't ask that of her. But as he walked down the docks toward his home on the water, Shuyin knew one thing for sure. When Yevon spoke of Bevelle, something about those piercing lavender eyes raised the hair on the back of his neck and tied his stomach in knots. And when he disagreed with him about Lenne's transfer, it felt as if the high summoner was looking straight through him.

))((

Zen worked hard learning teleportation magic at the temple during the days, but joined the evening training sessions when Shuyin drove the boat to the beach. He knew how to assess his opponents well and had a talent for mirroring their battle moves, so he often sparred with Shuyin sharing ronso tricks of the trade in fighting - in particular, how to use a well-grounded weapon as a tool for a variety of acrobatic maneuvers. Lenne began fortifying Shuyin with her magic during his mock battles and taught him a few basic spells to enhance his own natural abilities. She introduced the ronso to her aeons, and he enjoyed testing his prowess against whichever creature she threw at him. There were still more losses than wins, but Zen and Shuyin learned how to work as a team to bring down some of the strongest ones on occasion.

As promised, Shuyin invited Zen into the sphere pool during a few Abes practices. The blitzball player was still curious to see how much damage the ronso could inflict with a tackle in the water, but he regretted it greatly by the time practice was done. Though Zen's cat-like expression rarely showed his pleasure, he was glad to be among the humans.

Time continued to pass. Zen started taking trips home to demonstrate what he had learned in Zanarkand, and the ronso began their preliminary steps toward installing teleportation gates throughout Mt. Gagazet. Lenne still had not heard back from Yevon concerning Yunalesca's return from Besaid, so she avoided discussing Bevelle with Shuyin until she had more information. And before Shuyin knew it, his first year as a professional blitzball athlete was nearly over. The Abes were favored to win the Jecht Memorial Cup finals against the Duggles. Expectations soared for the son of the man for whom the tournament was named. Contract negotiations for the next season depended on this win.

))((

On the night before the final game of the championship, when Lenne came out of the houseboat after some intensive study on advanced summoning, Bahamut ran from the beach to the pier to grab her hand. "Lenne! Lenne! You have to come see Shuyin's new trick!"

"Did he defeat the last aeon?"

"Yep! But he's been practicing against other targets Zen set up for him until you could summon another. Zen showed him how to do this really cool thing with his sword and -"

"Okay, okay." She laughed, curious about what could spark so much fervor in her quiet little brother. So, she allowed herself to be tugged back to the beach area where the ronso was standing a large driftwood log in the sand and a tired-looking Shuyin was volleying a blitzball. "I hear you have a new trick," she said as she approached, baiting him to show off.

He bumped the ball once more with his head, caught it, and tossed it to her. "Throw it as high as you can." Casting a brief, simple spell on himself, he grabbed his sword and repositioned it, sticking it firmly down into the sand. "Aim for the area above and a little in front of the sword." A faint sheen of golden magic clung to him as he backed away and waited.

"Well, at least you're asking to play fetch with a ball, instead of a stick," she teased.

"Just don't call me a shih-tzu and threaten to put ribbons in my hair."

"Hm, … I was thinking maltese."

He shook his head in humor. "Just throw the ball."

She smiled, but then paused to consider the strength and angle needed before throwing it as high as she could above the sword. As she released the pitch, Shuyin sprang forward and used the sword's pommel to vault after the air-born ball. She recognized the set-up for a sphere shot, but when he flipped into the phenomenal arc and kicked it, the ball exploded into the deadwood target, splintering it to pieces. When the initial smoke cleared, what remained was still burning with flames.

As Shuyin landed on his feet, the ronso ran after the ball, checked it for damages, then pitched it back to him with a throw that nearly smoked his hand off, as well. Shuyin quickly withdrew his attempt to catch it and popped a friction-burned finger into his mouth as he jogged after it.

"Wow!" Lenne walked to the burning driftwood and stared at all the debris around it. "Wow, that was like a mini-fireball! Have you been learning elemental magic?"

"I earned a wow." He grinned with pride as he came back to her, ball in hand, … overhand, … underhand, … spinning ... "Strength enhancement and a few things Zen showed me for maximizing energy in motion. It's more of a fiend trick than true magic."

"That could do some serious damage to a fiend."

"What fiend? That's for the blitz tournament."

Lenne was amused. "I don't think they'll allow a sword in the sphere pool."

Setting the ball on the sand and then sitting on the ball, Shuyin exhaled and dropped his head for a moment of rest. Zen pushed over what remained of the burning log and doused the flames with sand.

"You look exhausted." She crouched before him and sympathetically brushed the sweaty hair from his eyes. "You won't play well tomorrow if you burn out tonight."

He lifted his chin as the ronso and the boy drew near. "Everyone's going to want to see the Jecht shot. I mean, the tournament is named for him, for crying out loud. I tried doing it again, but I just can't." He sighed in discouragement. "This is the biggest game of my life, so far. I need to create something to take its place."

"All these years later and you are still trying to outdo your father. You know, you are, without a doubt, the most stubborn person I know."

"They won't forget about it, so how can I?"

Bahamut yawned and sat down in the sand beside his blitzball hero. Picking up a piece of burnt wood, he stirred it in the sand making magic symbols. "You should do the one that rains energy into the ground. That one's really cool."

Shuyin had to think for a moment to remember which stunt he was talking about. "Nah, that one's definitely for fiends."

"Well, I think you should just keep doing what you've been doing. It's worked so far." She straightened and tugged at his hand to coax him to do the same. "Let's all go home, so you can get some rest before the big game."

"You heard her. Back to the boat, so we can head home," Shuyin flicked the blitzball to Bahamut and shooed the boy back toward the pier. The ronso left the charred driftwood chunks and followed behind the boy, while Shuyin put out their campfire and retrieved his sword from the sand.

Lenne slipped an arm around his waist and lagged behind their other two companions as they crossed the beach. The breeze coming off of the ocean stirred the air with a salty scent, and a full moon lit their path toward the pier in the darkness. She smiled to herself as she rested her head on his shoulder and listened to the gentle waves lapping against the dock posts and the sides of the boat. "How about a drink? Something nice and cold?" she asked as she crossed the plank onto the deck and he pulled it back in to prepare for the drive back to the harbor.

"Just water."

Lenne followed her brother and the ronso inside. "Zen, could you make sure he doesn't get sand on the furniture?"

The ronso hefted the small human boy to his shoulder and dusted him thoroughly, in spite of his squirming giggles, before depositing him back on the rug.

After filling two glasses with ice water, Lenne returned to the deck where Shuyin was raising the anchor. "Bahamut's already talking about seeing those ruins on top of the mountain after the championship. Were you serious about taking him up there? That's kind of risky, don't you think?"

He drank the refreshing liquid without taking a breath between gulps, and when it was gone, he used the glass to cool his brow. "I gave him my word. I think he'd enjoy the challenge of going up there to see it, but I won't take him inside - probably infested with fiends. Some risks are worth taking, but I'm not that stupid." He stared at the empty glass in his hand for a long moment, then lifted his eyes to hers and gently drew some of her loose hair over her shoulder as he sat back against the rail. "You know, … I've been thinking about this whole Bevelle transfer thing."

Lenne sighed, not wanting to talk about it - not now. "You need to focus on your game tomorrow, not Bevelle."

"Just hear me out. You asked me to be your guardian, but I can't protect you if you're not with me. You're back and forth between your place and mine a lot, but you spend most of your time here. Because you like it here, … right? You can summon your aeons for my training and let your hair down instead of hiding beneath that ugly hat."

She laughed lightly. "I _like_ my ugly hat, thank you."

"But if you lived here, you could do all that, have the sun and the water, and the boat could dock at any harbor near any temple. And then I could bring it back here for blitzball. So, … wouldn't it be easier if you just ... lived here?"

Lenne's brows rose in astonishment at what he was suggesting. This definitely was not the conversation she expected.

"I mean, I'll understand if you'd rather not, but it feels like something's missing when you go home. I guess I kinda already have it in my head that this is your home. Here, … with me." He brushed a long, loose tendril of hair behind her ear, and smiled at the stubborn little strip in the middle of her forehead that always escaped because it was shorter than the rest. Eyes locked onto hers, he searched for an answer in her expression as much as her words.

"You would move the boat to Bevelle?" The more that she thought about it, the more that it seemed like the perfect solution. Lenne reached to his neck, drew him into a hug, and blinked back the tears that were forming. "You have no idea how much this means to me. I'll start bringing all my stuff over after the game."

"_All_ your stuff? _All_ of it?" He pulled back with a playful wince, but then gave her a kiss and dried the tear on her cheek. "Day after the game," he agreed. "Something to look forward to, even if we lose the tournament." He straightened from his position against the rail and embraced her again. "I don't care where I have to go, as long as I can be with you. I love you, … Lenne," he softly added, speaking her name as if there was magic in it.

))((

The atmosphere within the packed stadium on the day of the tournament was electric. People from all over Spira had come to see Zanarkand's best blitzball teams battle it out for the Jecht Cup. Lenne, Shuyin, Zen, and Bahamut entered the stadium together and paused a short distance from the back doors to the locker rooms where scores of fans clustered awaiting the appearance of any player.

"Good luck. We'll be in our usual place. Run - before they recognize who you are." Lenne pursed her lips for a quick kiss.

Shuyin answered her request and slapped a high-five with Bahamut and Zen before jogging into the throng of blitzball fans. Dressed in a yellow-and-blue, long-sleeved T-shirt with a small Abes logo, and a pair of ordinary jeans, he almost made it to the door before people realized he wasn't just another face in the crowd. The minute he was recognized, shouts and a few excited screams turned the crowd's attention on him until he was surrounded. He appeased as many autograph seekers and sphere recorders as he could on his push to the entrance, but when his shirt was snagged by a few overzealous fans, he was glad to finally make it behind closed doors. He'd never seen that many fans in his life!

Exhaling with a sigh of amazement at the sheer number of people in attendance, Shuyin headed down the hall and made himself focus on why he was here. It was time to put on his game face. Opening the Abes' locker room door, he went straight to his locker and hung his duffle bag from it. Kicking off his sneakers and placing them in his locker, he stripped down to his blue athletic shorts and tucked his street clothes into the locker for safe keeping to wear home after the game.

"Toma! He's here!" Naya called toward the back stairs.

"It's about time," Toma called from the top of the stairs where he was recording the pre-game activities near the sphere pool. "Hey, Jecht Jr. Since it's your first time up for the Jecht Cup, they've decided you're the one up for greeting the fans and throwing the ball into the sphere pool tonight - to honor your dad, and all that."

"Yeah, be careful not to throw out an arm giving that ball a toss, or we might just have to bench you," Kiryl sarcastically added from the stairs.

The other players chuckled.

"Well, in that case I'll throw it in some sissy-ass, underhanded manner like you would." Shuyin smirked as he donned black shorts and a short-waisted, yellow hoodie. More laughter and a few "ooohs" rose from his teammates as they kidded their way out of their pre-game jitters. When he was finished dressing in his uniform, Shuyin checked his game play notebook and shoved it back in his locker. Then he locked the door and checked his shoulder guard to be sure it was strapped on tight. With only a few minutes to go, he went to one of the shower stalls and stood under a stream of cold water for a few seconds, hoping the temperature shock would keep his nerves under control.

His coach approached and passed the blitzball to him, giving him a proud slap on the back. "No daredevil stunts up on the axis this time. Keep it clean and safe. You'll have plenty of opportunity for stunts in the pool." He paused before walking away. "Oh, um, … you didn't happen to work on that little trick that we talked about, … did you?"

"I can't do it," Shuyin told him again.

"Okay, no problem." His coach smiled, understanding. "Just thought that would be a cool surprise to show off for the Jecht Cup finals, if you could."

Shuyin left his coach, climbed the stairs, and waded through the calf-high water of the sphere pool's central axis to sit on the support bridge with a sigh. Tucking the ball between his feet and under the seat, he took one look at the distant signs of life surrounding him in the dark, enormous stadium, then he leaned his head back against the wall of the axis and closed his eyes to wait.

"Are you nervous?" Toma asked, still recording.

"Nah, just thinking of what I'm going to rename that cup once it's ours."

Toma chuckled and headed back to the stairs to leave their star player alone with his pre-game thoughts and join the team huddle. The noise of the crowd fell silent to Shuyin's ears until the only thing he heard was the beating of his own heart. Tonight, his game had to be flawless. Tonight, he had to be Jecht's son - just for one night. _No ..._ His eyes opened as the axis machina started to hum. _Tonight belongs to Tidus. Sun and waves … I own this pool now, Old Man, and I can win this thing if you stay out of it. That's the only thing that matters tonight - a win_."

The lights flashed on, and the music started, letting everyone know that it was time for the game to begin. The crowd roared as a water spell was generated in the center of the bowl-shaped arena floor. The vertical axis ring lifted as the cybernet activated, and the stadium dome split, unfolding and opening to the stars. On cue, Jecht's son stood from his resting place on the main axis and stepped up on one of the small, raised platforms within the machina ring. Blitzball tucked under hand, he was the center of attention to thousands of adoring fans.

The water spell finished forming with dramatic flare, the laser lines blinked on inside the pool, and the scoreboard lit up. His introduction to the crowd was drowned out, but everyone knew who he was anyway, so it didn't matter. He waved to the packed stadium and searched for his friends' faces in their usual seating. Lenne and Bahamut cheered as enthusiastically as any other die-hard blitzball fans. Zen remained calm as he stood and watched, but his tail twitched in anticipation.

A loud whistle blew from the stadium speakers. Jecht, Jr. held up the ball for the whole stadium to see. With an impish grin he waited for the cheers to turn into shouts encouraging him to throw it in and taunted them with a brief, but humorous, fake drop. Then, he drew his right arm back and catapulted the ball into the sphere pool. The crowd went wild. He waited just long enough to be rejoined by his teammates on the central ring, before jogging toward the designated entry in the cybernet and punching through it to swim to his right forward position. Another whistle was blown, and the ball went into play.

))((

Lenne leaned toward her brother's ear to speak above the cheers. "What do you say we take him to a really, really nice restaurant tonight if the Abes win, huh?"

Bahamut jumped up, engrossed in something that wowed the rest of the crowd, too. The star of the Abes had just broke free of a tackle and punched another player with such force that he went right through the cyber-net that held the water in its large, spherical shape.

Lenne gasped as a cold gush of water sprayed onto them and the outcast player's back hit the concrete buffer between the balcony and the row below it. Looking back to the sphere pool and "Tidus's" impertinent grin, the summoner frowned. This was why she never liked this game until she met him. Bending over the back of her seat, she helped the ejected player stand and quickly checked him for obvious injuries. "I'm so sorry!" she loudly apologized over the cheers as she cast a couple of cure spells on him. "My boyfriend did this to you, but I'm sure he didn't mean it! He's a really nice guy when he's not playing this game!" The player seemed to think she was crazy, but nodded his appreciation before limping back to the sphere pool. "Feel better soon!"

"Lenne!" Bahamut pulled her back around in her seat. "Stop being nice to the other team! It's embarrassing!"

Put in her place about her social etiquette being contrary to the sport, Lenne snorted in offense and folded her arms at her chest. But when the Abes scored the first point of the game, she joined Bahamut in standing on their seats to imitate Shuyin's well-known victory dance. Zen remained as stoic as ever, but he did grin and lift a large hand for the small boy to give him a high-ten.

Back in play, the ball was passed multiple times before someone shot it out of and above the sphere pool. Shuyin sped toward the surface and broke through the water wall like a leaping dolphin. As he soared high, arching backwards in one fluid movement ready to command the impossible shot, Lenne yelled with excitement and waited to see another goal scored for the Abes.

Suddenly, multiple explosions could be heard above and around the stadium.

The summoner stopped dancing in her seat, took her eyes off of the blitzball player, and looked around in confusion. Whatever just happened, it was big enough to be heard clearly above the roar of the crowd and the blaring music.

"Oh my god! The pool's collapsing! Run!" someone shouted near where they stood.

Lenne looked up. There was a long, low creak of impending doom from the machina supports and girders overhead. The cross-axis rings that formed the boundaries of the sphere pool shook and tilted. The magic spells that held the cybernet in place dissolved, and the sphere pool's bottom began to fall apart. The water from the large pool formed a tidal wave that bore down on everything below it, instantly flooding the ground level, but then a wall of water from the sea crashed down on the stadium, as well, crumbling it to pieces and washing away everything in its path. There was no time to question what was happening. There wasn't even time for some people to flee.

"Shuyin!" Lenne looked to the sky. He was clinging to the top axis of the sphere pool, but with water rushing around her shoulders, she was forced to swim for the entrance with everyone else that was trying to escape the doomed building. "Shuyin!" she screamed once more before turning to look for her little brother and their ronso friend. Both were present and near, but the water was rising rapidly as the stadium sank into the sea. Bahamut started to slip under when Zen reached for the boy and pulled him onto his back above the water level.

Another explosion rocked the stadium. This time flames and waves of blistering heat billowed out from the remains of the stadium's ceiling, and the open sky revealed the surprise arrival of warships. Zanarkand was under attack.

"Shuyin!" Lenne screamed for him one more time, but now he was nowhere to be seen, at the top of the sphere pool or among the flood of people struggling to escape.

"Shuyin good swimmer!" The ronso reminded her as he held tightly to Bahamut. "We go to safe place!" Zen grabbed Lenne's arm and pulled her along behind him, pushing aside anything that got in his way.

Against her will, Lenne was dragged out of the sphere pool arena to seek solid ground outside the stadium.

))((

Shuyin had seen the missiles fired and witnessed the towers erupting in one explosion after another until the huge tidal wave from the attack crashed down on the city in a macabre attempt to put out the flames with a flood. He saw it because when the sphere pool collapsed, he was above it, and when he started to fall back down, he caught hold of the vertical axis high above the open arena. As he struggled to hang on, Zanarkand began to crumble and wash away right before his eyes. Lenne was down there!

War with Bevelle was inevitable now.

When the second bomb struck the stadium, it jarred his hold enough that his fingers slipped. The blitzball player fell, plunging into the cold, dark water that had flooded the stadium. Visibility under sea water at night was extremely low. He was barely able to see the bodies of the other players and hundreds of spectators on the ground level, but some of the electrical lighting had not been blown out yet. Had he not done that sphere shot when he did - had he fallen only a few seconds sooner - he would have died with the rest of them. Frantic with concern for Lenne, Bahamut, and Zen, Shuyin swam toward the submerged seating section where they were supposed to be. The stands were littered with the bodies of drowned or otherwise injured victims. He didn't see his friends among them, but that hardly eased his mind about their safety.

He left the grisly scene and swam for the exit where a multitude of people were pushing and shoving to escape the flood before lung capacity failed them. Making the most of his underwater advantage, Shuyin pushed between them and began grabbing drowning spectators in whatever hold he could manage to rush them to the surface. As soon as one victim was gasping for air, he was diving for another, but there were simply too many people for one person to rescue before lack of oxygen forced lungs to fill with water instead. Some drowned before he could get them to the surface. Others could not swim after he took them up there. Eventually, none of the bodies visible under the surface struggled for air.

Exertion and panic stressed his own lung capacity to the limit. In despair, Shuyin rose to the surface to catch his breath and cough up sea water. Treading water in the dark of night, he watched the tip of the Zanarkand stadium sink beneath the sea and turned to scan the faces of the survivors that swam or floated among the wreckage. He did not see his friends among the living, but he could not accept that they might be somewhere out there among the dead. He couldn't bear to lose anyone else dear to him. He just couldn't.

"Shuyin!" someone shouted.

Seeking the source of the distant cry, he spotted three heads bobbing above the cold water. One of the silhouettes had cat-like ears, and another was small enough to be a child. Huffing in overwhelming relief, he swam toward them as fast as he could.

"You're alright!" she sobbed, latching onto him to minute that he was close enough to touch. "I'm so glad you're alright!" Burying her face into his neck, she clung to him as if he were a life vest.

Tears of relief filled his eyes, but fear quickly overpowered any sense of security just yet. He could tell she was already weary from trying to stay afloat; but he was also tired, so grabbing onto him would only put both of them at risk. Realizing that he was about to lose her, Shuyin looked to Zen for help, but the ronso was struggling to help the boy. The closest available surface was a fallen building that lay across one of the floating bridges. Both were in danger of sinking, but they would do for now. Signaling Zen to follow, he somehow found the strength to swim to it.

Having a little more energy and a little less weight to carry, the ronso swam ahead of Shuyin and pushed the human boy up onto the ledge of broken concrete. Then, he pulled himself out of the water and helped Shuyin draw Lenne over the edge. When they were safe, Shuyin clasped a grateful hand onto the ronso's arm and was lifted out of the sea, as well. Then, he knelt in front of Lenne and pulled her into his arms, holding her for a long moment just to get over the fear that he had lost her.

"What's happening?" Bahamut coughed and cried.

"Someone attacked the city," Shuyin quietly answered him. Lenne drew her brother into her arms, so that the three of them formed a shivering huddle on the concrete island amid the burning flood. "The whole team's gone," he reported, finally allowing himself to feel the overwhelming loss of life. "Naya, Luperis, Shaft, ... every one of them. Coach ... The fans ... I tried to save some, but ..."

"How do we get home?" Bahamut asked through his tears. "Is Mom okay?"

Shuyin paused in his lament, sniffled, and lifted his eyes toward the harbor. His houseboat was gone, and for that matter, so were the piers. The buildings beyond the harbor looked more like broken ruins now. "We have to make our way to the mainland. Can you swim to that thing sticking up out of the water over there?" He had no idea what the thing used to be. With everything sunk, collapsed, crumbled, and on fire, he hardly recognized Zanarkand any more.

"I think so." The boy shivered, cold and wet in the night air.

Shuyin looked to Lenne. "Can you make it, or do you need me to carry you?"

"We can't leave yet." Lenne shook her head as she clung to him. "People are still trapped under water and burning buildings. They need your help, Shu. You're the best swimmer out here."

"I don't want to leave you," he protested.

"I'm fine now. But more people will die without your help."

Shuyin reluctantly compromised. "If you take Bahamut home and check on Meri, I'll stay here and help as many as I can."

"Shuyin take drowning people to shore. Zen take Lenne and Bahamut home, then take injured people on shore to temple," the ronso offered.

Lenne nodded in agreement with the ronso's idea. "The temple will be swarming with people needing help. I'll meet you there after I take Bahamut home. But I don't want you out here trying to do this alone." The nearly drowned summoner rose to her knees. Spreading her arms, she summoned her wand. The magical wards that came together at her call formed a large, blue bird of prey with long red and purple feathers. "Help us! Please!"

As the aeon took flight, Shuyin dove into the water again. "Make sure they reach land," he called to Zen. "Make sure they're some place safe before you come back to me." He hated to turn his back on them, but he would honor Lenne's request to keep looking for survivors. After all, that could have been her out there trapped under water or a burning building.

Hindered greatly by lack of light, cold temperatures, and not having any tools, Shuyin searched the harbor's wreckage for survivors. As he found people and brought them to whatever stable surface was available, Lenne's phoenix scooped them up and flew them to the mainland. The violent events had disrupted the fiends lurking in the depths, so a new danger quickly rose to an already nearly impossible task. Without his sword, all Shuyin could hope to do was outwit them or out-swim them. It wasn't long before he was forced to abandon his efforts for fear of becoming easy prey.

Instead, he hopped on the aeon's back and scanned the city from above, looking for people trapped in burning buildings or rooftops. But as he brought an elderly man from some rubble for the bird to carry to the temple, the warships returned and fired on it. The aeon was more concerned about getting the victim to safety than defending itself, but in the process of trying to save the man's life, it lost its own. Shuyin watched in helpless dismay as the aeon melted out of the material realm to return to the plane of magic.

More missiles were fired - this time toward the east water gardens. Wasn't that where Lenne said the spirits of her aeons resided?

Shuyin shouted a string of curses at the Bevelle warships and pitched a small rock at them in frustration, but then continued his search and rescue mission alone as he made his way on foot through the razed city toward the temple.


	19. Chapter 19: War

Chapter 19: War

Lenne, Bahamut, and Zen swam toward the shore using as many resting points above the water as they could grasp onto, no matter how unstable or brief-lived they were. She didn't even notice her aeon was shot down because she was too concerned with trying to keep her brother and herself alive. When they reached solid ground at the mainland's waterfront, they ran for the nearest public transport station, but all trains had been rendered useless.

Another missile whistled into the city and exploded behind them. Lenne grabbed her brother's hand again and ran down the crumbling, blazing streets dodging falling debris. They stumbled a few times, but finally rounded the corner of the street where their mother lived. The building, or what remained of it, was completely engulfed in flames. The floor Meri lived on no longer existed. Lenne dropped to her knees, pulling her brother down with her, and fell into heartbroken sobs with him. Zen stood over them in silent vigil as they grieved, but with flood waters already moving rapidly through the waterfront district streets, he knew they could not stay.

After several minutes, when another missile hit the city, Zen pushed them to keep running. The ronso lifted the boy onto his back and ran with Lenne toward the inner city. She passed through shattered buildings and between injured people that she attempted to help along the way, pushing forward toward the temple with only a passing glance to her own destroyed apartment complex.

The temple was on higher ground and closer to the Zanarkand plains, but it, too, had been targeted by the warships. People were already bringing their wounded and dead to the temple grounds, begging for the assistance of a white mage or summoner. But since the temple itself had been marked, everyone was afraid to go inside of it. While temple officials were doing everything they could to get people out of harm's way, Lenne decided her primary task was to sort the living from the dead, and sort those who needed healing magic from those who could go on to a hospital with less threatening injuries. She knew it was unlikely that her mother escaped before her building was hit, and she had no idea what had become of her aunt or production crew, but she kept hoping - fearing - that she might find familiar faces among the new arrivals, living or dead. If she could not heal her loved ones, she could at least help them rest in peace if they were found. She couldn't bear the alternative, knowing they could become fiends.

"Lenne!" One of the temple summoners jogged toward her from the interior chaos. "High Summoner Yevon is calling all available summoners and white mages to defend the city. Said to tell any summoners present to join in casting the shell."

Lenne nodded in agreement, but then turned to their ronso friend. "Zen, we have to get as many people as we can to safe places, but nowhere in Zanarkand is safe anymore. You said there were hidden caverns in the mountains. Is it possible to send our refugees there for temporary shelter?"

Zen was clearly reluctant about the request without approval from the tribal elder, but he had witnessed the unprovoked attack and damage done to the city. He nodded in agreement.

"I will suggest it to Lord Yevon, then." She looked to Bahamut. "Do you know how to join a casting yet? We need all the magic we can get."

"I think I can," the boy answered.

"When Shuyin comes looking for us, let him know we're okay," she told their ronso companion. "Just keep moving people to safety!" she called back to him as she took her brother's hand and ran with the other summoner back into the temple and down into the summoning chamber. Nearly every summoner in Zanarkand that had survived the attack was gathering in a large, multi-ringed circle, extending their hands and magical staffs toward the starry sky overhead. Lenne and Bahamut slipped into the circle wherever they could squeeze into a space and lifted their hands as well, drawing spirit magic together in a manner that united their shaping of the particles into one strong spell. In the center of the circle, Yu Yevon lifted his staff and directed their combined flow up into the smoke-filled air over Zanarkand. Their summoning formed a defensive shield above the temple that spread down and around the rest of the city.

Almost as soon as it went up, a missile slammed into the shield and exploded. One of the airships that didn't see it and rammed into it, exploding on impact, as well. The night sky looked as if it was on fire, but the shield held. The warships fired trying to break through the shield with one last effort, before giving up and flying away. Their mission to destroy Zanarkand had nearly succeeded. Three-fourths of the entire city was sinking into the sea, and the fourth that remained on solid ground was a broken, burning mess.

))((

By the time Shuyin finally dragged himself into the temple, the city shield was being maintained on a rotational basis so that some of the summoners could divide into groups to begin sending as many dead as possible, while the others tended the injured among the living. They moved everyone into the stable areas of the temple and used fire spells on emergency torches to light the bombed ruins. It was easy for him to spot the large ronso helping Lenne carry bodies into a blown out corner for the sending rites. As soon as she spotted him, she ran to him and enveloped him in an emotional hug. Frightened and overwhelmed by the trauma of the day's events, the pair simply held each other until the pain of what they had experienced was able to subside in the comfort of each other's arms.

"How's your brother?" he asked once her tears quieted.

"He's helping in the summoning circle."

"And your mom?"

"There's nothing left." She was beginning to sound hoarse from all the crying, shouting, and screaming.

"Meri ..." He felt Lenne's loss almost as deeply as she did.

"Everything has burned down to the water and then sunk the rest of the way into it. Survivors coming in say the whole city is flooded - even most of the mainland. There's so many ..." She broke down and wept again. "So many have died. So many are still dying. There's no way we can send them all. Zanarkand will always be haunted by fiends now with this many deaths all at once." Lenne clenched her teeth. "How dare they attack us like that! How dare they do this during a big event like the tournament when they knew people would be defenseless! Visitors who don't even live here were crowded in there! That far away from the shore, there was no way to escape! Whole families with babies and children and ... Even in the buildings they were trapped and ... and ..." She pounded an angry fist into his chest, but then broke into tears again.

He'd never seen Lenne angry before - annoyed, but not _really_ angry. "The only people I've been finding for the last half-hour were already dead," he reported, discouraged. "I wasn't doing much good out there, so I decided to wait until daylight and try again."

Lenne nodded in understanding of the conditions. "But I know you made a difference to those you found. Thank you for trying." Still crying, she pulled back and tried to wipe away the tears. "We can find a place to rest after the meeting Lord Yevon has called for all summoners and their guardians. He is urging people to seek shelter in the open plains for the night, away from the unstable buildings."

"It's too bad my tent is at the bottom of the ocean with my boat," he muttered.

She sadly nodded, though the loss of the tent was the least of their worries.

Shuyin held her close and kissed the top of her head as she buried her face into his wet uniform and continued to cry. "We'll survive this, okay? We still have each other." He wanted to tell her everything would be all right. He wanted to, but he couldn't get past clenching his teeth in anger at Bevelle. He hated Bevelle more than anything right now. He looked up to find peace among the stars, but on this night destruction had rained down from them. She was his only place to find peace now.

))((

High Summoner Yu Yevon entered the room where most of his surviving summoners and their chosen guardians had gathered for the emergency meeting, and as he stepped onto the podium, whispers silenced to a hush. He was calm and saddened, but his strange lavender eyes now bore the chilling look of someone who had his back against the wall with only one option out. "First, … let me say I am thankful that so many of you have … not only survived this barbaric attack on our fair city, but come to my aid in this time of need. The shield that drove the warships away would not have been possible without each and every one of you. This attack wasn't intended to be a warning. It was meant to obliterate. And since they failed their mission, they will try to come back. That is why I have called all of you together. We must be vigilant in not allowing them to kick us while we're down."

Lenne sat quietly on the floor with her hands folded together in a prayerful gesture at the tip of her nose, but she was not praying. She was trying to remain calm. Seated beside her, Shuyin placed an arm across her shoulders and drew her near, still trying to comfort her.

"I knew this would happen if we declared our independence from the Founders!" one of Yu Yevon's advisers angrily proclaimed. "I warned you! This never would have happened if you had listened to us and made some kind of consensus with Bevelle, rather than touting it in their faces that we would do as we pleased!"

"Zanarkand will _not_ be bullied into complying with the Founders when their ultimate goal is to destroy Spira!" The high summoner angrily faced his discontented adviser with a piercing gaze. "The Founders want to destroy the magic that sustains life on this world because in their eyes Spira is not a real world. To Earth, we are nothing but a colony ship that has become an unpredictable threat. They fear us because souls on Spira live on in a different state of consciousness even after our bodies die. They don't understand aeons or fiends, so they accuse us of summoning demons. They say we are cursed! And they fear that our magic will extend that curse to them, eventually conquering them. But Spira is not like Earth! We should not have to restrict _our_ lives according to _their_ archaic beliefs and fears! They have no right to govern us when they do not understand us. And we certainly don't deserve to die for it."

"But to declare independence only raised their hackles more!" the adviser continued, unmercifully. "Over half of the city was destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people died for the sake of that declaration! The people of this city trusted you to make good decisions that would protect them!"

"I have not failed my city yet!" Yevon dared the man to throw blame in his face at a time like this. "We will not take this lying down! Bevelle will be punished for this atrocity, believe me. Zanarkand will be saved, whatever the cost." Yevon stepped aside from the podium, but still leaned on it as he addressed the gathering, rather than his political opponents. "The warships' primary targets were quite clear. They took out all of our airships to restrict us to ground-based operations. They hit the east water gardens where I was building my aeons toward the city's defenses. They took out the communications networks to keep us from getting organized enough to send new orders. And they took out the stadium, the bridges, and every city block on the floating isles and waterfront, which means they didn't care _who_ they killed as long as they took out as many of us as possible. If the shield had not held them off, the temple and everything around it would have been finished, as well. That doesn't leave us much, … but we will fight with all that we have left. We still have our ground defense machina, and we have you - Zanarkand's finest summoners and guardians. We will march on Bevelle and demand justice for the sins they have committed here today."

Lenne looked at Shuyin with alarm. Shuyin's heart pounded nervously at the news. _War ..._ He expected as much, but actually hearing it made it harder to swallow. He knew he shouldn't say anything, but he couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Excuse me, Lord High Summoner, ... Sir." He held up a hand to draw his attention, but wasn't sure how to address the man. "If the water gardens were destroyed, does that mean all the aeons were destroyed, too?"

"All of the Fayth in the water gardens were destroyed," Yevon confirmed, as anxious whispers went around the room. "I have no idea how Bevelle knew that the souls of our aeons resided there, though. I strongly suspect there is a traitor among us, and that matter will be investigated and dealt with as soon as the more immediate concerns are no longer a problem."

"But, if summoners can't call aeons to fight, you're sending them into battle unarmed."

"Summoners are not unarmed as long as they have their guardians."

Shuyin frowned. "With all due respect, sir, guardians aren't enough to take on Bevelle's army. This isn't a fiend cornered in an alley of the southern district. Without aeons, you're sending us out there to die."

"Shu ..." Anxious about his bold confrontation with the high summoner, Lenne reached to his hand, in plea for him to not push his luck.

Yevon's brows knit in a deep trench. "Warriors and guardians with the machina will do most of the fighting. Mages with offensive, elemental magic will be among their ranks, as well. They will be shielded by the defensive magic of the summoners, who will be shielded by their guardians." He addressed the gathering once more, rather than the one who interrupted him. "You will march on Bevelle and secure the temple, then my daughter, Lady Yunalesca, will present my demands for retribution to Bevelle's governing council. My demands are simple. The Founders must leave Spira for good. All weaponry machina must be banned so that no city is ever attacked like this again. And the magic of the Farplane must be left to all levels of existence and use without restrictions. If they do not meet our demands, ... they will get a taste of Zanarkand's power first-hand."

Shuyin didn't like the sound of that. "But if you send us there, who will be left here to guard against another attack? Sometimes in blitzball, we set up a play to draw the other team's defense forward, so that we can slip a shooter behind their backs closer to their goal. What if they're doing that to us? If you take our machina weapons _and_ our summoners to Bevelle, there's nobody left to defend Zanarkand."

"This is not a game!" Yevon hit the podium with a fist and his gaze darkened on the blizball player. "And you are _not_ in a position to question me, guardian!"

Shuyin rose in quick confrontation. "I'm in a position to protect my summoner! And taking the summoners into battle without aeons is_ not_ protecting them! Leaving Zanarkand without its summoners' defenses is _not_ protecting it! While you're trying to prove your political independence, you'll be sending more people to their deaths!" His protest sparked a widespread murmur of agreement among the other guardians and summoners gathered.

"Sit down and hold your insolent tongue before I have you thrown into the garrison!"

"Shuyin, please!" Lenne tugged his hand to sit back down, but he stubbornly folded his arms and remained standing.

Yevon descended from the podium to stand directly before the obstinate protestor. His intense, purple eyes and stern demeanor tightened in silent anger before he spoke loud enough for all to hear. "I said Zanarkand's aeons were destroyed. I never said there wouldn't be aeons to help you fight." He turned to his daughter. "Yunalesca, would you please demonstrate to this _guardian_ that we have nothing to fear on the front lines tomorrow?"

Lady Yunalesca, a high ranking summoner in her own right, left her golden-armor-clad husband and guardian, Zaon, to stride toward Shuyin with a cold, haughty glare. "Each of the temples has been fitted with a new aeon - each temple, except Bevelle. It has been left defenseless because the one chosen to be its guardian has been reluctant to leave Zanarkand." Yunalesca cut a glance to Lenne before returning her attention to Shuyin. "Now that all our eggs are no longer in one basket, so to speak, if one aeon falls, another from a safer location may be called upon."

In spite of Yunalesca's alluring, barely-there attire and long, silver-white hair, Shuyin's eyes never left her face. They were obviously still intent upon having Lenne take that position, but if she accepted it now, she would be at even more risk than before. He felt no guilt whatsoever about being the obstacle to Lenne's acceptance if it meant keeping her alive.

"Our summoners here in Zanarkand have not had the chance to travel to the other temples and pray to the new Fayth yet, so unfortunately, they will not be able to call upon them. _However_, ... I can." Yunalesca backed up and summoned her magical staff. Giving it a twirl, she drew glyphs of fire that would open a gateway to the plane of magic at her feet. "Ifrit, guardian of the flames of Kilika! Come to me!"

The glyphs on the floor burst apart and a large, canine-faced, multi-horned beast with a flaming mouth materialized at her side, making all the other summoners in the room quickly clear the floorspace for it. The aeon shook out its flame-orange mane and pounded its large clawed hands on the ground, ready to pounce at the given command, but Yunalesca patted his muscle-defined neck and shoulders, as if it were a docile lamb. Then, she smiled proudly to the rest of the summoners and tipped her head toward Shuyin hoping that was enough to make him eat his words.

Most of the summoners in the room were low-ranking and had no knowledge of how to summon _any_ aeons yet. So, they were awed beyond words at its presence. Lenne knew what kind of trust and magical strength were required to call upon one of the Fayth, so she bowed reverently to the new aeon.

Yevon lifted his chin with confidence toward Shuyin, and then looked over his shoulder at the argumentative adviser who also spoke out against him. "Now then, if the two of you think you can be quiet long enough to listen, ... I'll tell you the plan." The high summoner returned to his podium and addressed his congregation, now that he had their attention once more. "At daybreak, my daughter and her husband will lead most of our survivors away from the city to some hidden caverns in the mountains. They will inform Elder Kinan what has happened here, although with his vantage point on Gagazet, I'm sure he already saw most of it. The rest of you will have one day to prepare for your mission, … which is to destroy Bevelle's machina and secure the temple there. Yunalesca will send aeons to help you fight, and I will protect Zanarkand _myself_." He faced the roomful of summoners with a grave expression. "My decision is final. Use tomorrow to take care of any business at home."

Shuyin sat back down in a huff. "You mean _if_ you still have a home," he cynically grumbled.

Lenne gave him a reprimanding scowl and hooked his arm to prevent him from confronting the high summoner like that again. "What were you thinking! Do you want to end up in jail?"

"He can't jail me when the entire city's in ruins. We probably don't even have a jail anymore."

"Excuse me, my lord," another adviser spoke up. "But ... what should we do about the rumors regarding Bevelle's development of an ultimate weapon? If the rumors are true about an intelligent weapon with the power to obliterate an entire army, how could our ordinary machina compare to that?"

"Our aeons are far more intelligent and powerful than anything Bevelle could screw together out of nuts and bolts. That weapon is only a rumor. No one has actually seen such a thing to prove it exists. Either way, it is of no concern. If Bevelle has dared to produce the ultimate machina, then I will send them the ultimate aeon."

))((

Zanarkand was eerily silent that night, except for the sound of people mourning their lost loved ones. The City That Never Sleeps was cold, dark, and mostly gone. The air still smelled of smoke, and the ocean waves lapped against the debris, bumping anything loose around until it found a new permanent place to wedge and settle. Survivors kept coming to the temple for aid. Summoners worked through the night sending as many dead souls as they could, but pyreflies were already rising around the city and its surrounding bay, giving it the appearance of belonging to another world.

Lenne met her brother in the summoning chamber after the meeting, and the four friends left the city limits for the broken road toward the plains for the night. It was only a few hours before dawn by the time they settled. Though they were all exhausted, tension was too high to sleep. Instead, they pitched a campfire to dry out wet clothing and stay warm as they kept a nervous eye on the sky beyond the mountains toward Bevelle. None of them had anything to say for a long time, until the ronso spoke.

"Zen fight as Lenne's other guardian tomorrow."

His offer to join her entourage touched her, but she sadly shook her head and declined. "Thank you, Zen. But I can't let you do that. You need to help your tribe build the teleportation gates. Zanarkand is in shambles now, but if the mountain pass can stay open, we can rebuild someday."

"If Zen cannot go as guardian, then go as friend. If cannot go as friend, then go as ronso. But Zen _will _go," he angrily insisted.

"I want to go, too." Bahamut's quiet little voice was sad, but determined.

This time Lenne vehemently shook her head. "Absolutely not. You're not even a full-fledged summoner yet. And you don't have a guardian."

"Shuyin and Zen can be my guardians."

"_NO!_" Lenne clutched his thin arms in her hands. "You're a little boy! For god's sake act like one for once! The battlefield is no place for you."

"I'm good with magic, too," he argued. "Everyone should be allowed to help if they can."

"Then, help here. We need good summoners here as well, where people are wounded and homeless. Please,_ please_ stay here. Promise me you'll stay here."

Bahamut shook his head in refusal. "I have a dragon's heart! I'm not afraid!"

Shuyin abruptly snatched the boy's shirt, startling both the boy and his sister as he drew him near. "I don't care if you have a dragon's ass! Promise your sister you'll stay here! The front lines of battle are no place for a kid, and she can't afford to be worrying about you!"

Bahamut trembled slightly under the blitz player's anger, but it wasn't because he thought he might hurt him. It was because Shuyin's anger revealed his fear. "I promise," he tearfully agreed.

Shuyin released the boy, but remained irritated at his and Zen's heroic offers. Standing, he left the campfire to seek solitude for a moment on a rock hill facing what was left of the city.

Lenne hugged her brother close to comfort him, but her attention followed her upset guardian. After a moment, she dried her little brother's tears, then stood and climbed the top of the rise where Shuyin's blank gaze stared out over the burning ruins of their homeland.

"We don't have to go to Bevelle," he suggested, knowing she was near.

She sat down at his side, wrapping her arms around her knees. "You know that we do."

He laced his fingers through hers. "We could go some place far away. I hear Kilika is always sunny. We could have a little beach-front place with palm fruit trees, … pet monkeys." He gave her a small smile.

His smile made her sad. He was such a dreamer thinking he could escape all of this and start over some place else, but she had to admit she liked the sound of his dream. "I can't _not_ go, Shu," she told him before he could continue and make her long for something she knew she couldn't have. "People are counting on me - on us. If we run away, the other summoners and guardians will be short on defense. And if they lose, Bevelle might hurt another city. But if we fight, maybe we can destroy their weapons, so fewer people are hurt in the long run." She tried to offer him a hopeful smile.

It did nothing to make him feel better. "There's no way to talk you out of this then, ... is there."

She shook her head and entwined her arms under his, leaning in closer.

As they sat in silence for a long moment, he sighed and looked back toward the sea. "Do you intend to take the position at the temple, as soon as we get there?"

"I think I should." She averted her eyes with regret and shame. "If I had accepted the position before Bevelle had the chance to attack, I might have been able to warn Zanarkand about the warships. If I accept the position now, we could at least have another aeon at our disposal. And I think we're going to need all the aeons we can get."

"How do they make those things anyway?"

"Well, I don't know exactly, but to summon an aeon, you have to pray to its Fayth."

"Faith?"

"The Fayth are spirits who willingly gave their lives to defend Zanarkand. Summoners must pray to each Fayth and be judged worthy before we can ask for their help. It's the only chance the Fayth has to deny its service because once the bond is made, it cannot be broken. If the Fayth chooses to bond with a summoner, its soul comes through the summoning magic back into reality as an aeon. That's why they look so much like fiends - they're both made of spirit magic that has manifested as a solid illusion - new bodies for old souls. So far, only the high summoner and his daughter know how to create an aeon, but I'm sure they will train others someday. Right now they're just concerned with teaching how to summon them."

"A lifetime of bondage to fight at someone else's call?"

"It's quite a sacrifice, … which is why we revere them so. It's probably also why there aren't many of them."

Shuyin cast her a wary side glance. "How exactly did they _willingly_ give their lives?"

Lenne gave a light shrug. "I'm not really sure. I suppose they died in line of duty while fighting fiends, or something."

Shuyin's brows drew together in uncertainty. "Or maybe they were, you know, ... literally sacrificed?"

Lenne frowned and sat up, pulling away from him. "Oh, come on!"

"They can't volunteer _after_ they're dead."

"Human sacrifice?"

"If nobody knows how they died -"

"If that was the case, don't you think one of the spirits would have said something about it?"

"Maybe they can't … for some reason. None of the aeons you summoned could talk."

"Shuyin, _stop_." She waved her hands in irritation. "I know you don't want me taking that position in Bevelle. And, I know you don't like Lord Yevon - for _whatever _reason. But accusations of human sacrifice are totally uncalled for. How can you say something like that about him when his teachings have always been about protecting and helping people? He's prepared to defend what's left of Zanarkand _all by himself_ while the survivors escape."

"Okay, I'm sorry," he quietly apologized. Drawing her into his arms again, he kissed her temple and sighed. "It's just … I'd never be able to forgive myself if I let anything bad happen to you, and I still don't understand how a summoner could be a guardian using only defensive magic. Don't be mad at me."

"What's there to understand? Guarding someone means defending them, … right? This shield over the city is guarding us by just _being_ there. It doesn't have to fight." Lenne wrapped her arms around his waist once more and snuggled into him as close as possible, allowing him to act as a buffer against the chilly breeze coming off of the desolate ocean. "Lord Yevon needs our support right now, … not arguments. Lady Yunalesca's aeon looked proud to be at her side. The Bevelle aeon is probably just as eager to help, but no one's there to pull it through." She pouted slightly and placed a hand over his heart, able to feel it beating. "I'll be fine as long as you're there with me."

"I will always be there for you," he quietly promised, hooking her pinky finger with his own.

))((

At daybreak, Bahamut kept his promise and joined Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon when they gathered the refugees. Lenne kissed her little brother and waved a tearful goodbye as she watched him follow the exodus from the ruins of Zanarkand up the mountain pass to the safety of the ronso caverns.

Yunalesca noted the boy's reluctance to leave his sister's group, and she was well-aware of his reputation as a precocious summoner. In spite of his age, the fact that he was leaving with the refugees instead of fighting made her wonder. "You want to fight with them, ... don't you?" she asked taking him under her wing as they walked across the plains. "You can if you wish, you know. They could probably use your help. You may be an apprentice, but my father has said great things about your potential."

"I promised I would stay behind."

"But your heart wishes to defend them."

"Yes." The boy marched alongside her without expression, … without complaint, … without further explanation. He was still shedding tears over his lost family, and he was tired from lack of sleep; but his small face was set in determination to keep his promise, since he could do nothing else.

Yunalesca nodded thoughtfully to herself as an idea came to her that perhaps her father had overlooked.

))((

Lenne spent the rest of the day alternating between healing the injured, helping to perform sendings with other summoners, and joining the effort to keep the city shielded.

Shuyin and Zen swam to his houseboat to inspect the damage and found it pinned under the heavy concrete piers at the bottom of the ocean floor. There was a big hole punctured in the hull, so he swam through it to the lower bedroom and drew his father's sword from the closet. He would need it tomorrow, but there was no point in trying to salvage anything else yet.

))((

Dawn over Zanarkand the following morning was bleak. Lenne had not been able to sleep a wink on the cold, hard ground during the night, and she found herself longing for the comfort - yes, comfort - of those two, thin sleeping bags and blankets they had used up on Mt. Gagazet. Hearing the warriors' preparations to take their armored machina over the mountain pass, she finally gave up on sleep and sat up, drawing her knees to her chin. She tried to think of something to distract herself from her worries, and looked to her sleeping companions. Zen could not be shaken from wanting to join them, so she finally accepted his offer and took comfort knowing she now had two very capable guardians at her side. Lightly stroking the back of Shuyin's hair, she considered how much he had changed since they first met. It made her sad, but proud.

Shuyin felt a tear fall on his cheek and woke with a stretch. He didn't need to ask why she was crying again - any number of reasons could be cited. But he also knew she had less chance of surviving the challenge ahead, if she went in already defeated. "What are you trying to do, drown me?" he softly quipped.

She gave a light laugh and dried her eyes. "Sorry."

With a mild groan, he pushed himself up to a sitting position and put a hand to his stomach.

"You're not feeling sick, are you?" she asked with concern.

"No. Just hungry."

She lifted her eyes to the horizon of broken buildings and smoke plumes. "I'm afraid your bottomless pit will have to do without breakfast. I don't think any stores are open for take out." It would have sounded funny, instead of sad, if he had said it.

"Maybe our big plushie over here can hunt something on the mountain trail on our way to Bevelle." He reached for the tuft of fur on the end of Zen's tail, intending to give it a mischievous yank, but his wrist was abruptly caught in the ronso's vice-like grip.

"No touch tail." The ronso opened one pale green eye.

"I ... was ... not going to," Shuyin lied, ... badly.

Lenne smiled as the ronso released him and stood. As soon as the calls went out for all summoners to gather their guardians and take their places in the march formation, however, her smile faded once more.

"Are you sure you don't want to just ... walk away from this?" He tried one more time to convince her she didn't have to do it.

"I'm sure," she answered without hesitation. "I'm just ... scared," she admitted. "I'm used to fighting a few fiends here and there, but I've never done anything like this before - fighting other people."

"You're not the only one," he assured her. "But, if we're going out there, we need to stay focused on winning. Okay? Don't think about anything else. If you let your concentration slip, then you make careless mistakes," he coached her as if she was now a member of his blitzball team.

"Guardians not leave Lenne's side," the ronso added.

Lenne gave each of them a hug and a kiss for their loyalty and attempts to encourage her.

"And don't make a habit of kissing him, okay?" Shuyin continued. "I might get jealous, ... and you might get fur in your mouth, … which is kinda nasty just thinking about it."

She chuckled lightly at his continued attempts to lift her spirits and took his hand to pull him along. Then, she summoned her magical staff and clutched it tightly in her free hand as she walked between her two guardians toward the gathering of Zanarkand's armed forces.

))((

Organization had to be quick and thorough if Zanarkand were to pull off this maneuver, so as soon as summoners arrived at the formation, they were assigned a small unit of warriors to defend. Lenne made a point of personally meeting all the warriors in her troop, learning their faces and shaking their hands. Their lives were dependent upon her, so she wanted to make sure she knew each of them well. After that, mobilization was fairly swift in spite of the large machina leading the way.

Shuyin took one last look over his shoulder at the city of his birth - his home. A small, robed figure stood alone on the steps of the ruined temple watching them leave. He still had strong misgivings about Yevon's way of handling the situation, but the time for debate was over. All he could do now was slip an arm around Lenne's shoulders and move forward with her.

Lenne did fine going up the long hike to the mountain summit, but as soon as they came to the narrow crossroads again, Shuyin hoisted her onto his back and told her to close her eyes. It was a good thing they had done this before, so he knew what to expect and do this time. The only time he became nervous about the crossing was when one of the tall, robotic machina nearly slipped. The warriors managed to use other machina to brace it and pull it back on track, but there was fear among everyone for a moment that the fragile overpasses would not be able to support their weight if one of the machina fell with enough force to cause a stress fracture in the rock beneath them. He decided against informing Lenne of what was happening when she asked why they had stopped, and muttered something about scouting for fiends instead.

When Zanarkand's army finally reached the ronso village, Elder Kinan was already present to meet them, and Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon stood beside him. Yunalesca, still dressed in her favored scant attire, appeared to be miserable standing in all that snow, but her flesh sparkled slightly with the glow of magic - a spell designed to warm her, Shuyin supposed. He shivered in his own blitzball vest and shorts, wishing he had a spell like that at a time like this. Lord Zaon appeared to have the right idea wearing full body armor. Shuyin nudged Lenne and whispered in her ear. "When this is over, I want a pay raise so I can get one of those tin can suits and look like a real guardian."

Lenne smiled at his suggestion, but she was cold and shivering, too. So while she appreciated the delay, she hoped this little stop-over wouldn't take long. She was anxious for word about her brother and the other refugees, though.

"Our survivors are safely hidden!" Yunalesca announced to the army. "Do not fear for them! Instead, remove the threat that prevents them from returning home! Summoners and warriors, we fight for those who perished without mercy in this unprovoked attack! We defend those who cannot defend themselves!" She raised her summoning staff high above her head and twirled it to open a portal to the plane of magic. "Valefor! On wings of light! Come to our aid!"

The sky seemed to open from another realm, and a very large, brightly colored, bird-like aeon swooped over their heads to hover above them. The Zanarkand summoners were awed by their new fighting companion and bowed reverently to her.

"Ronso see destruction from afar!" Elder Kinan stepped forward to face the Zanarkand army, too. "Ronso not let Bevelle's army cross mountains second time," he growled, clearly just as angered by the attack as his nephew had been. "Ronso protect Zanarkand until Zanarkand tribe returns!"

Seeing a throng of ronso warriors come from the various ledges and caverns to stand behind their elder was just the boost of the morale the summoners and warriors needed. They cheered their gratitude both to their ronso allies and their new aeon.

As the army moved forward again to go through the mountain pass and down the other side, Zen pulled Lenne and Shuyin out of march formation to meet with his uncle one more time. "Zen go with Summoner Lenne. Fight for ronso friends." He drew out a memory sphere out of the pouch at his waist and pressed it into his uncle's large hands. "Last of temple magic lessons. Put teleport gates in mountain for Zanarkand tribe to return."

The elder ronso nodded in solemn agreement and braced his nephew's shoulder, then watched as Zen and his human friends filtered back into the army's ranks.

Shuyin looked up at the aeon flying ahead of them, but as he stared at the city in the plains below the precipice all he could think of was what they were leaving behind.


	20. Chapter 20: Man Vs Machina

Chapter 20: Man Vs. Machina

By the time the Zanarkand army made it down the steep slopes on the other side of the mountains into the flat, grassland basin, night was creeping in around them. Troop commanders decided it was best to rest before attempting to cross the wide-open plains to face off against Bevelle. Their troops had not eaten or slept well since the attack, but to delay too long before a counterattack would allow Bevelle an opportunity to do it again. Campfires were summoned on piles of stone, and select members from each troop were sent to hunt wildlife that prowled the region. Zen volunteered for that effort, while Shuyin and Lenne rested.

Meanwhile, the warrior captains opened crates of emergency rations that had been collected from storage before they left Zanarkand and began passing them out among their units. "Good thing Yevon thought to stash emergency food supplies with the ground forces machina." Chyuno, the captain of Lenne's warrior unit, commented as he offered her a packet.

Lenne opened the plastic bag and sniffed it with distaste.

"I've had this before. My old man used to pack it for camping trips." Shuyin squished his bag to mix the ingredients, then poured some into his mouth.

Lenne passed her bag to him. "You can have mine then."

He stopped chewing and passed it right back to her. "You have to eat something. I don't want you passing out on me just because you're a picky eater."

"I'm not a picky eater."

He chuckled as if that was the most absurd statement she had ever made. Eating more from his own rations, he stretched out his legs, crossing one ankle over the other.

"He's right," Chyuno agreed. "We all need to eat to keep up our strength. Please at least try it, Lady Lenne. Our troops don't stand a chance if you're not strong enough to fortify them tomorrow."

As the troop leader left a third pack for their ronso friend and went to the next members of his unit, Lenne set her food packet aside and stretched out, resting her head on Shuyin's lap.

As he ate, Shuyin noticed Yunalesca's bird-like aeon sitting quietly by itself a short distance from them. Ever since meeting Lenne's aeons, he had become fascinated by the things. "Ne, Lenne. Do you think that aeon is stronger than the ones you had?" He finished his mouthful and sipped some of the bottled water that had also been supplied from the emergency rations.

Lenne saddened even more at the mention of her lost aeons. "I'm trying not to think."

"Thinking about how much fun we had training might help you smile. Remember that first time when Ryuo pushed me overboard? Or what about that time -"

"I don't feel like smiling anymore."

He set down his bottled water to draw her hair away from her neck and shoulders. "I know it doesn't feel like there's anything worth smiling about right now, but … going into this feeling discouraged won't help."

"I know." She interlocked her fingers over and under this knee. "That's why I need you to keep smiling, even if I don't. It's one of the reasons I wanted you to be my guardian, remember?"

"Well, maybe I don't feel like smiling, either." Shuyin moved his ankles back and forth lightly jostling her head. "You're still not eating."

"I'm not hungry."

"Liar. Your stomach growled louder than mine coming down that mountain pass." He rocked his ankles to jostle her head again, and then picked up the bag of pre-cooked food, touching it to her lips and making "nom-nom" sounds, just to annoy her.

The corner of Lenne's mouth reluctantly curled with a small laugh. Finally, she sat up and grabbed the bag from him. "You are such a pest. I'll need water if you expect me to choke this down."

Shuyin smirked at his victory and passed her water bottle to her as she started to eat. When he had finished his own meal, he dropped his trash into the pile for collection. Then, he walked to the aeon and reached a cautious hand to greet it. "Don't bite me. Just trying to say hello."

Valefor sniffed his hand, then stood her full height to tower above him, before lowering her neck to his eye level.

Shuyin smiled at the gentle nature of the creature and stroked its soft feathers. "Too bad you weren't around earlier to join my training. I'll bet you've got some interesting moves."

"She likes you." Lenne approached them from behind, after depositing her trash.

"She?" Shuyin backed up and glanced askance at the creature. "Nh, … how can you tell?"

Valefor shook her neck and stomped, talons digging into the ground at the insult.

He quickly shielded himself and backed away from a possible attack. "Nevermind. That was girly enough to erase any doubts."

Lenne chuckled lightly. "Remember, she can understand you, even if you can't understand her. She's not an animal. She was human once."

Shuyin reached to stroke the creature's feathers once more. He tried not to let it show that it made him uncomfortable to think of aeons that way. "So, she's … resurrected … kinda."

"I'd say it's more of a reincarnation, since her body manifested differently."

"But she's really real."

"Well, as real as any spiritual manifestation can be. The magic that creates an aeon's body truly does simulate flesh and bone while present in the material plane. She feels hunger, pain, and everything else we do. But, as you know from your training with them, their illusion dispells, and their spirits are banished back into the Farplane, if they die in reality."

"But you can summon them again, so … if they're basically immortal, why didn't the aeons in the water garden survive?"

"Well, technically all spirits on Spira are immortal, but most stay in the Farplane once they are sent. Aeons can return when summoners invoke the magical seals placed on the tombs of their Fayth. The only way to truly destroy an aeon is to destroy its Fayth's tomb. And that's exactly what Bevelle did when they hit the water gardens."

"There were tombs in the water gardens?" He was mildly appalled by that thought.

"There have always been many tombs in the water beneath Zanarkand. That's why we had so many problems with fiends before Yevon taught us the Rites of the Sending. That's why … " Lenne saddened and slipped an arm around his waist. "Nevermind. We'd better get some sleep. Chyuno says we need to move as soon as day breaks tomorrow morning." She drew him back to their campfire as Valefor whistled a good night to them.

Shuyin considered his own mother's burial at sea. And Koji's … Possibly his dad's … How many more souls had met their end in those depths? How many more were there now?

Zen had returned from an unsuccessful hunt - too many people and machina around scaring off the prey. He had already eaten his rations packet and extinguished their fire. Now he was reclining in the grass. Both Lenne and Shuyin copied his position, but Lenne rolled toward Shuyin, placing an ear on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. A cool breeze swept over the plains, and crickets in the field chirped to one another, but the summoner and her guardians could do nothing more, except wait for elusive sleep to come.

))((

The noise started as a low whistle, then broadened into a steady engine rush. Shuyin woke from a troubled dream and supported himself on one elbow as he sleepily scanned the pitch dark wilderness for the source of the odd sound. It took him a moment to recognize what it was, but seconds later he was on his feet frantically tugging at Lenne and Zen. "Get up! Get up!" he urged.

Everyone else in the camp seemed to wake about the same time, but realized too late they were being ambushed. Red and white lights rose from behind the cliffs on the other side of the grasslands, the ground shook with explosions, and clods of dirt and rocks flew into their faces as the Bevelle warships rained missiles down on them.

Lenne's troops tried to cover their heads and duck for cover behind their heavy machina, but the summoner started to panic.

"Stay calm and cast your magic! We need shields!" Shuyin coached her above the thundering bombs, though his own heart felt as if it were about to flee at any minute.

Recollecting her senses, Lenne summoned her rod and began casting shield spells over each of the warriors in her unit as they hurried to defensive positions. Shuyin drew his sword, and Zen took up his lance, both of them flanking Lenne so that nothing would interfere with her casting.

Other than the sparks of magic, Shuyin could barely see what else was happening, but he heard the clattering engines of large machina starting up, and within a few minutes, Zanarkand's army was returning fire. The explosions were almost deafening and brought back fresh memories of the blitzball stadium under attack.

Valefor rose into the air and cast powerful sonic waves at the warships, rattling them until they began dropping parts. Then, she flew straight at them, driving one warship into the cliffs, and another into the ground. The aeon alternated between physical and magical attacks, but since her attacks were the strongest ones out there, she soon became the favored target.

Shuyin was thrown to the ground when a missile hit near them in a blinding flash. "Damn it! I can't see anything but spots!" he complained, reaching toward the summoner to see if she was okay. Lenne and the warrior she had been casting a shield on had been bowled over by the air strike, as had Zen, but no one seemed to be in distress. As his vision cleared, Shuyin saw that no one was injured yet, but as he looked toward their ally in the sky, he noticed her form was beginning to shimmer with magic and fade away. "Lenne! We can't afford to lose the aeon!"

As soon as she was back on her feet, the summoner began casting cure spells on the bird-like creature to sustain her a little longer. Other summoners must have noticed Valefor was in danger, too, because soon more and stronger cure spells could be seen fortifying her flight. The aeon was their most powerful weapon and their only airborne defense. They had to keep her alive.

Valefor grabbed two more warships, one after another, and flung them to the ground where they exploded on impact. She almost managed to bring down another, but her body could take no more punishment. And the summoners were running low on magic to sustain her. The aeon's pyreflies dispersed, and the last warship turned-tail and fled back to Bevelle.

An eerie silence followed as the night sky lightened into a smoke-filled dawn. Shuyin stared in speechless dismay at what the sun's first rays revealed. The ground was pitted with large pock marks and deep trenches. Bodies that perished in the air strike lay scattered all around. Warships lay in burning scrap heaps like crumpled pieces of blackened foil. The battlefield wasn't what disturbed him the most, though. "That couldn't possibly have been the bulk of Bevelle's forces, … and one airship escaped," he said to Zen. "This isn't good. They know we're here now."

"They knew before ambush," the ronso pointed out.

"Lord Yevon said he suspected spies in Zanarkand," Lenne spoke, looking distraught and exhausted from all the defensive spells she had been casting. "Someone must have told Bevelle we were on the way for a counterattack."

"Or they have scouts out here somewhere." Shuyin scanned the burning grasslands and cliffs. There didn't seem to be many places to hide in the open plains, though.

"We haven't even broke camp, yet we've lost our aeon and most of my magic is already consumed," she added.

Zen offered her a vial from his pouch, and she eagerly drank it without complaint.

Shuyin frowned at the questionable green liquid that gave off thick vapors. "What's that stuff?"

"Ethers - it restores magical energy," Lenne explained, already feeling some of her vitality restored. "Thank you, Zen. I need to check on everyone and make sure we have no injuries or losses, but Chyuno should have more in the alchemy supplies. Could you please bring back as many vials of ethers as you can carry and remind him to give some to our mages, as well."

Zen nodded and jogged away to find their warriors' captain. Lenne scanned the battlefield and hurried to the first warrior she spotted on the ground. Shuyin sheathed his sword and followed, but looked back at the cliffs toward Bevelle. He knew better than to think this was over yet.

))((

When Zen returned to Lenne and Shuyin, the orders had already been given to move out. Zen carried a pouch full of ethers, and passed one large handful each to Lenne and Shuyin. Shuyin stuffed his portion into the pockets of his blitz uniform shorts and zipped them shut. Lenne had no pockets, so she fit her vials into easy-to-reach places around her clothing and gave Shuyin the remainder when she ran out of places to tuck them. When they were both ready, they jogged back into their assigned formation. A few summoners lingered behind to gather the bodies of the dead and perform a sending. But when most of the army was lined up behind their largest machina, the push toward Bevelle began again.

Lenne checked over her shoulder and saw something that looked like a large fireball heading toward them from the mountain pass. Its incredible size and speed worried her at first, so she almost shouted out a warning. But then she recognized what it was. "It's Ifrit! Lady Yunalesca must be watching from the mountain! She summoned Ifrit!" she cried aloud to encourage the others.

Those who heard her turned to see the Kilika aeon bounding over the pitted ground between the crashed warships. It was just the morale boost they needed in the wake of the scant victory over the pre-dawn ambush.

))((

The Zanarkand army was barely half-way across the plains when the warriors in the front line spotted Bevelle's regiments heading their way from the main road between the cliffs. As planned, on cue, the Zanarkand units fanned out across the plains in a formation that resembled a wide, broken horseshoe with tiers.

Shuyin watched in wide-eyed discontent as machina from Bevelle poured into their midst. "There's too many." He shook his head in disbelief. "There's too many, and they're all machina! How are we supposed to break through that?"

A gasp caught in Lenne's throat as the hoard swept in various directions toward the Zanarkand blockade. Grasping his sleeve, she looked to him with worry. "Where are the soldiers?" Row after row of machina came from the cliffs, but not a single human warrior was among them.

"Cowards!" Zen snarled in anger and hefted his lance. "Bevelle hides behind machina!"

Shuyin drew his father's sword and shielded his face with his arm as the first missiles began hitting the ground, sending chunks of debris flying.

Zanarkand's warriors in the large robo-machina launched a counter attack. Popfly machina and other heavy artillery followed on their heels. The grasslands erupted into full-scale war.

This time, Lenne didn't need to be cajoled out of shock to remember her responsibilities. More alert and focused than before, she cast a shield spell on herself and her guardians first, then ran to her troops and began casting shields over them. Zen and Shuyin flanked close to her side, but kept an eye on the ever-encroaching swarm of unmanned machina headed their way.

Bevelle brought out its crawlers and lined them up to spray the oncoming Zanarkand warriors with bullets as they rushed forward. The terrain became an obstacle course of fire, machina, and deeply gouged pits. The air began to feel heavy with the scent of ash, fuel, gunpowder, and magical ozone.

Lenne finished her first round of protective magic and began her second that would nullify all magical attacks on her troops. She replenished her magic as necessary, using the vials tucked into her clothing as she ran between them, but each second brought machina closer to them. "Shuyin! Zen!" she finally yelled for help against the oncoming tide.

Shuyin frowned and cast a haste spell on her, himself, and the ronso, so they could move more quickly. Then, he faced the cluster of machina that seemed closest to them and cast the spell in reverse, slowing their advance to buy them more time.

Backing Shuyin's tactics, Zen leaped into the air and came down thrusting his lance into the ground with a spell that basically unleashed a small quake on the cluster, before running after his summoner.

Ifrit cast several flaming meteors into Bevelle's biggest weapons, taking them out of commission. All of the large machina that remained targeted the aeon without mercy. The canine creature responded by casting a fire spell that lifted an entire section of Bevelle's army off of the ground. Then, he ripped a huge chunk of land from the ground and threw it at them. If the destroyed fighters had been human, rather than machina, it would have been sickening to see how many lifeless bodies dropped to the ground in the wake of the fiery aeon's attack.

Lenne cast a regen spell on herself, drank down another vial of ethers, and then cast regen spells on her guardians. But as she turned to heal the aeon, Ifrit suffered a hard blow from an oncoming warship and was banished from the material realm. The summoner gasped in horror and whirled to look toward Gagazet. "Please, Lady Yunalesca! Please send us another aeon! Hurry!" She could only hope she was still watching.

"The warships are back!" Shuyin grabbed Lenne's arm and started to say something else when a new sound reached his ears. As if things weren't bad enough, they turned to see hundreds of little buzzing and snapping robots breaking through the front lines and rushing forward into melee. One jab from the mechanized little monsters' bayonet attachments and a human warrior was run through from chest to back. Some had gun attachments, while others pitched grenades. "What the -" He was forced to dodge a strike, but then slid to the ground to kick the quick, little robot's feet out from under it before thrusting his sword up underneath it, severing circuits. "Zen!" he shouted in warning before he could throw off the electrified machina's shell. The war had finally trickled down to them.

Zen deflected one of the soldier machina's bayonets and cast magic to drain energy from its battery. Then, he used the opportunity to give the mechanism a quick scan for weaknesses.

As more soldier machina surrounded them, large, dark storm clouds gathered over Mt. Gagazet. This was no natural storm, though, and within minutes an electrical bolt from them sent a titan of a unicorn thundering across the plains. Ixion galloped in a blustery wind, rather than on the ground. And as it came within reach of the battle, the aeon sent shock waves from its horn into each of the warships, blowing them apart in mid-air. It sent another electrical strike into one of the crawlers, then landed on top of another and turned it over, crushing it beneath its large hooves.

Lenne was awed seeing the new aeon for the first time, but her awe was short lived when bullets pierced Shuyin's protective magic and shoulder.

"Shit!" he grimaced in pain and clutched at the wound, feeling a warm trickle of blood already seeping between his fingers.

She quickly cast a cure spell on the injury and replenished his shield, before rushing toward one of her fallen warriors to get him back into action.

Shuyin was no sooner healed than he snapped his sword down in front of himself again to block an attack from another of the annoying, but deadly little machina soldiers.

Zen used his lance to vault over his opponent, then speared straight through the circuitry surrounding the AI chip. It was an instant kill, but their summoner was nowhere in sight now. The ronso growled in frustration at being attacked by two more of the contraptions before he could hunt her down.

A manna ray discharged across what was left of Zanarkand's large machina defense. Ixion was banished and explosions ripped along each of the remaining robo unit fuel tanks, setting more of the shrinking ground space aflame with black smoke.

Lenne shrieked and covered her ears, but then ran forward to check the bodies scattered around the ground. Some she healed, some she encouraged, and for some she enhanced their strength or ability to endure beyond fatigue. For others, she could only shed a tear for and promise herself to come back and send them when all of this was over. It didn't matter that they weren't in her unit. Troop units didn't matter anymore. Helping each other survive became the priority. She helped three more warriors before Zen finally caught up to her. "I need more ethers!"

Zen handed her one of the vials from his pouch, then turned his back to her and readied his lance.

Shuyin slammed a foot into the machina that was hampering him from joining them, then he sprinted toward the large blue ronso that stood out among the humans and robots.

"More! I need more!" Lenne urged both of them.

Shuyin unzipped his pocket and dug out several vials, passing them to her. As she tucked them around her clothing for easy access again, he noted the dark circles beneath her smoke-irritated eyes. Those magic potions were probably the only thing keeping her going now because she appeared to be on the verge of exhaustion again.

More storm clouds gathered, but this time they seemed to turn the sky to frost before bursting into ice shards that struck everything from incoming warships to the smallest mechanized soldiers. A blue, tattooed woman with long, thick dreadlocks - an ice goddess of sorts - emerged from the ice burst amid the enemy and shrouded a crawler in multiple ice storms. Then, with a snap of her fingers it was completely destroyed. And yet, ... more crawlers kept coming. Bevelle simply had more machina than Zanarkand had soldiers. And it was easy to replenish their losses with fresh metal, whereas human summoners, mages, guardians, and warriors were beginning to thin and tire.

Shuyin took his eyes off of the ice goddess and spun around to see more machina speeding toward them. He shook his head at the impossible numbers and felt like fleeing.

"Shuyin! Cover!" Zen shouted in warning.

A grenade landed nearby. Shuyin cast a slow spell on it, then grabbed Lenne and ran as fast as he could away from it. When it exploded, he jerked her to the ground and bent over her to cover her. His back took the brunt of the heat and fallout, but he was thankful the grenade finished off the most immediate machina soliders. "You okay?" He lifted himself off of her.

She slipped a vial from the armband of her sleeve and used her teeth to pull the cork, swallowing the precious fluid as quickly as she could. Placing both hands on his back, she mended him again, then stood. "Chyuno ..."

"What?" With a wince, Shuyin sat back on his heels and reached for his dropped sword as the captain of their warrior unit ran toward them.

"We're running low on ammo! I need a fast runner to head back to the mountain pass and see if the ronso have any hidden stores! Are blitzball players as fast on land as they are in water?" he breathlessly asked of Shuyin.

"Forget it, man. I'm not leaving my summoner," Shuyin answered over the gunfire and explosions.

"Waste of time and guardian. Ronso not have ammunition human machina use," Zen informed the human captain.

Chyuno looked pushed beyond the brink of despair as he pressed a hand to his weary forehead and paced wondering what to do. There was nothing he could do. "Then, is it possible for Lady Yunalesca to send us a batch of aeons, rather than one-at-a-time? The ice queen is starting to weaken, and we really need something that packs an unforgivable punch all at once, or we're not going to last much longer."

Lenne lifted her eyes to the sky to check the position of the sun. Was it already late afternoon? Daylight wouldn't last much longer either, at this rate. "It's impossible to summon more than one aeon at a time." She was growing sick of the smell of smoke and burning flesh.

Another manna ray went off banishing Shiva back to the Farplane and destroying another line of Zanarkand's defense.

That was that, then. They were doomed. Chyuno didn't tell them that, though. "Okay. Well, ... keep up the good work, guys." The discouraged troop leader walked away to count how many of the warriors in his unit were still alive.

Behind them, Shuyin could see another aeon coming toward them in a blur. This one was a samurai warrior in colorful robes with some kind of animal companion at his side. The blur flew overhead to land amid the enemy and continued trying to destroy their endless flow of machina. He vaguely wondered who would run out of ammunition next - Bevelle or Yunalesca? He had no idea how many machina Bevelle had at their disposal, but even with aeons in every temple, there weren't that many temples on Spira.

A loud whistle caught Lenne's attention. "Chyuno!" Lenne cried out in warning and cast a shield spell around him as the missile struck the ground, throwing him far from where they stood. "Chyuno!" She ran to where he lay, and Shuyin followed close behind her. Chyuno was bleeding profusely, but he was alive. With a trembling hand Lenne tried to close all the wounds and restore him, but her magic would not flow. Frustrated, she snatched another ether from the waist of her skirt and swallowed it down. Then, casting the glass vial aside, she started to try again.

"No," he caught her hand. "Don't waste all your magic on me. Save your healing spells for someone who can return to the fight with less aid."

"I'm not going to sit here and watch you die!" She slapped his hand away and cast the spell in spite of his protests.

Chyuno rose on one elbow and grabbed Shuyin's collar, since Lenne wasn't listening to him. "There's nothing more you can do here! Take her and break through their back lines. Get behind them and then run like hell. If you want to save those people in the caverns, someone's got to tell the rest of Spira what's happened. Bevelle must be stopped!"

"We can't give up yet!" Lenne pushed the hair from her eyes with a dirt-and-blood-stained hand. "Just ... lay low until someone can help you return to Gagazet, okay?" she apologetically advised, since she was unable to do more for him. Standing, she left him to tend the injured warrior closest to him on the ground. She was too late for him. He was dead. Biting back the urge to cry out in anger, she let her head drop to the man's lifeless chest for a moment to recoup her inner courage to keep going. Then, Lenne rose to her feet and moved toward other fallen bodies. All dead - and now black mages and summoners were beginning to scatter the battlefield as much as the guardians and warriors.

Shuyin looked around for Zen and saw him fending off more machina. Not wanting to leave Lenne's side, but not wanting Zen to fend for himself too long, he grabbed Lenne's hand and pulled her with him toward the fight.

"Lenne stay back! No heal!" Zen growled when he saw them coming to his aid. "Need magic for sending instead! Too many dead bring fiends!"

Shuyin stabbed his longsword into the joint circuitry of the same machina that Zen was trying to beat back, and together, the two of them finally brought it down. But he had no sooner claimed that victory than something jumped up from the ground and bowled him over. He lost his grip on his sword and rolled onto his back. When he opened his eyes, a large garuda sparkling with pyreflies was hovering over him, and more pyreflies were drawn to it from nearby bodies of the dead. This wasn't a natural beast. The eyeless, winged cross between a bird and a reptile, swooped over him and raked its talons over his chest cutting long, deep gouges into his skin.

"Shuyin!" Lenne cried out and started to run for him, but Zen blocked her path with a strong arm.

"Send lost souls that bring fiends!" he reprimanded her with a fierce scowl. Then, the ronso quickly reached for Shuyin's sword and ran toward the fiend over him. Casting his lance like a spear to pierce the flying creature's wing and disable it, he pitched the sword across the ground close enough for Shuyin to reach.

Lenne lifted her gaze to the battlefield. The grassland didn't look like itself anymore because of all the magic and ammunition ripping across the plains between the two armies, but worse than that, a large amount of pyreflies were beginning to rise above Zanarkand's lost warriors of all classes. "No ..."

As Shuyin reached for his sword, the flailing fiend grasped his arm and clawed him again. Zen ran forward and twisted his lance free, jerking the garuda back and down before casting his drain magic on it to heal his own injuries. Shuyin tried again for his sword, and this time, he got it. Sword in hand, he stood and used an over-the-shoulder slash to cleave through the beast. It would have killed any ordinary animal, but this was a fiend. The garuda dove low at him again, and he slashed toward it, opening another large wound in its body. Zen cast one more drain spell and then stabbed his lance up into its belly, using it to drag the creature to the ground at his feet. Shuyin slammed his sword down across its neck, severing the head completely from the body. The garuda's body melted away into pyreflies leaving no behind no trace that it ever existed, except for the long crimson streaks that covered Shuyin's chest and arm.

Lenne winced at his wounds and wanted so badly to heal him, but Zen was right. There were too many dead and dying on the field all at once now. And the last thing they needed was to be fighting Bevelle on one side and fiends on the other. Lenne gave her summoning staff a twirl and spun around in graceful motion, casting the spell to open the Farplane so that some of the lingering souls could depart.

Shuyin dropped to his knees on the ground to catch his breath and stabbed his sword into the soft dirt and grass beneath him. He paused to look down at the stinging lacerations on his chest and arms, but there was no rest for the weary. He could already hear more machina soliders coming their way. Groaning in complaint, he stood and tried to hold his position in front of her so that she could finish her sending. How long would this go on? How much longer could they last before they ended up on the ground like so many others? He looked toward the cliffs that opened toward Bevelle and wondered if Chyuno had been right telling them to quit and escape while they had the chance.

))((

All of the Zanarkand army's major machina were down. About two-thirds of the army lay dead on the battlefield. There was no way to break through Bevelle's forces without getting killed and nowhere to hide for those who remained. And though the last aeon had been defeated some time ago, Lenne realized she had not seen any new aeons come down from the mountain to take its place. More and more dead ... She was having to alternate between doing sendings and keeping her guardians alive. She was too late getting to most of the bodies she found now. Shuyin and Zen had given her their final supply of ethers, but all too soon she was frantically searching her clothing folds for more.

"What's wrong?" Shuyin asked, clutching a stab wound at his ribs where one of the solider machina had tried to gut him.

"I had one more ether left. I know I did! Shuyin, I can't run out of ether!"

His eyes scanned the ground near her. "Behind you."

Lenne moved her foot and spotted the vial she had nearly lost. That potion was more valuable than all the gil in Spira right now. She drank it down to the last drop, knowing there would be no more. Then, she cast a heal spell on the warrior beneath her and paused a moment, feeling dizzy.

The warrior sat up and tested his newly healed arm, but as he stood, his attention was drawn to the southern cliffs. The expression that washed over his face made the others turn and look, as well. After letting the machina do most of their fighting for them, Bevelle's human warriors were now rushing onto the battlefield to claim their victory.

"You've got to be kidding," the worn and weary blitzball player spoke for them all.

A bullet ripped through the ronso's unprotected chest, dropping him to his knees with a grunt.

"Zen!" The fatigued summoner cast a full-strength heal spell on him, then remembered to recast her guardians' shields.

Shuyin's shield spell deflected the bullets aimed at him, but the newly healed warrior wasn't so lucky. Growling in frustration, Shuyin charged the gunner and tried to disarm him, but the gun was fired at his leg during the scuffle and then was raised to his throat. Flipping the hilt of his sword without looking down, he thrust it through the man's waist. The blitzball player's eyes widened in shock as his first human victim in this _incredibly_ long battle stumbled away from him and fell. He had done it without even thinking.

Lenne stared at the dark crimson stain puddling beneath him, seeping into the ground. She knew Shuyin didn't know whether to feel relieved or afraid. He had never killed another person before. This wasn't even like the time the water fiend attacked him and Koji. He looked like he was going to be sick, but he had no time to recover from the experience before more human warriors rushed and surrounded them.

Zen roared and bared his fangs in a threatening manner as he cautiously circled her, warning all of them to stay back. And though they had guns, and he had only a lance, a ten-foot-tall, blue lion-man splattered with blood was not something to take lightly.

"Looks like we found us a summoner." One of the Bevelle guards leveled a large flame thrower on Shuyin, who stood glowering at them in silence in front of Lenne. "Step aside, boy. All surviving summoners are coming with us. We don't want to hurt her trying to get rid of you."

Shuyin's glower deepened into a dangerous, dark glare as he lifted his sword arm just enough to bar their access to her.

"That's your answer? Have it your way." The Bevelle warrior fired the flame thrower.

Lenne gritted her teeth and cast a nulblaze shell as fast as she could to spare him from being fried. The spell held up to the machina flames, but after that, the Bevelle warriors fell on them in a rush. Her two guardians were sorely outnumbered, but she continued to replenish them with healing spells until the last of her magic ran out. This time, she had no ethers.

Shuyin was through trying to disarm anyone. With a rush of adrenaline and sheer desperation for survival, his sword cut through flesh and bone with ease compared to the machina he'd been fighting. He fought with every ounce of strength he could muster, using his body as her shield, right down to his last conscious breath before he collapsed from multiple injuries and fatigue.

"Shuyin!" She screamed and made a dive for him, but the minute that he went down, she was caught and jerked away.

The mighty ronso made one final attempt to free her by stabbing his lance through her captor's heart, but simultaneously a blade caught him in the back.

"Zen!" The summoner collapsed to the ground and began to weep. "No ..., no ..." She was pulled back to her feet and cuffed in chains before being escorted away.

Too weak to fight, she continued to cry out the names of her guardians as she was handed over to the crew of a small airship, where she was cuffed to an inside rail along with a few other mages and summoners that had been captured. Lenne placed a hand against the cold, glass window and tried to see through her tears. Not knowing whether Shuyin and Zen were alive or dead in their fallen state, her heart ached for them.

"There was a ronso guarding this one," the Bevelle warrior who had taken her captive reported to another. "That may mean the ronso are going to need watching. Tell the maester we'll camp here tonight after dropping off these prisoners, … just in case."

"Will do, sir," the other Bevelle warrior answered.

Lenne's breath caught for a heartbeat. "_Maester_?" she whispered to herself in shock. The temple in Bevelle was responsible for this attack?

Before the window completely fogged over beneath the warmth of her hand and gasping sobs - before the distance between their rising airship and the ground below became too high and frightening - she could see an ant-sized handful of figures fleeing toward the mountains to deliver the news to Lady Yunalesca and the ronso, … although she was sure they already knew. Zanarkand's army had suffered an overwhelming defeat.


	21. Chapter 21: Fayth of a Child

Chapter 21: Fayth of a Child

Yunalesca lowered her enchanted binoculars and cast a nervous glance toward the elder ronso and her husband. "They're retreating, and bringing in some of the wounded. Please, … someone help them." The high summoner's daughter had exhausted each one of her aeons, and they still weren't enough. She silently cursed the fact that the Bevelle temple remained useless, then made a mental note to create more aeons somewhere - _anywhere_ - if they survived this.

Elder Kinan commanded some of his ronso warriors to go down the slope and aid the battle weary survivors back up the mountain pass to the village.

When they returned, Chyuno was among the survivors found and carried on the back of a ronso. "Lady Yunalesca," he addressed her with a heart full of regret. "We, ... we couldn't reach the temple. We couldn't even reach Bevelle. They had _so many_ machina. We hardly fought any humans until the very end. We have failed Lord Yevon. We're so sorry."

The confidence she once felt had been humbled as she watched the merciless slaughter in the grasslands, but she remained proud of Zanarkand's efforts. "You have no reason to feel shame. I saw the whole thing, and our army was nothing less than valiant." She turned to her husband and the elder ronso. "If not for those ... damned machina! Warships and guns are bad enough, but how dare they send those inhuman, unmanned things against us!"

"Bevelle cowards! Attack unarmed Zanarkand, then attack from afar. Ronso not let Bevelle into mountain pass or beyond it!" Elder Kinan vowed with a threatening snarl, then faced his mighty warriors. "Search battlefield for more survivors! Watch for fiends. Keep fiends away from Gagazet. Keep Bevelle away from Gagazet," he added in a dark tone, cuing one group of ronso to head down to the grasslands and search the bodies left behind. He cued another group to head to the base of the rugged slopes as defenders. Then, Elder Kinan went a step further and sent yet another ronso group toward Zanarkand and assigned scouts for areas within the mountains. Bevelle would not make one move in their direction without the ronso knowing about it and being ready to thwart their plans.

To Yunalesca, the idea of primitive beast-folk going up against machina warships that not even her powerful aeons and an army of summoners and mages could defeat seemed laughable at best. But the ronso had been gracious allies, and Zanarkand had no other cards left to play. She would not insult the elder by explaining his defenses were useless should Bevelle choose to strike the final blow now. "Thank you, Elder Kinan. I must report to my father at once." She told her husband and walked away.

Zaon grabbed her arm. "You're not going back to Zanarkand without me."

"You must stay and guard the refugees in the caverns." She glanced to the elder ronso and his few remaining tribesmen left guarding the village. "You must help Elder Kinan keep Bevelle away from this place."

Zaon was a quiet man, but when it came to matters of protecting his summoner - his wife - he became quite bullish. "You are not going down there into that fiend infested place without me, especially now that you've exhausted your aeons. Assign them another guardian, and we will go together to speak with Lord Yevon about what has happened."

"Another guardian? All who were capable of fighting were in that army," she reminded him. "We have nothing left!"

"You have refugees. And many of those refugees would be willing to do whatever it takes to protect the others. If you have the strength, … there might be a worthy soul among them." He gave her a desperate, but meaningful stare.

Yunalesca understood what he meant and nodded in sad agreement with his wisdom. With a shiver, she turned and asked Elder Kinan to escort them back into the hidden caverns.

))((

Zanarkand's refugees crouched in cold, silent darkness somewhere in the recesses of Mt. Gagazet. They were uncomfortable sitting on stone, but the ronso had given them food and furs and made campfires to keep the hairless humans warm. All of them looked up expectantly as the summoner and her guardian lord entered the cavern. They wanted news of the war. Many of them had loved ones in the army that had been sent to deal with Bevelle. But Yunalesca's and Zaon's expressions bore the sad news of their defeat without them having to say a word. Many of the refugees turned away in tears and sobs to mourn in each other's arms.

"The ronso are searching the battlefield for survivors," Yunalesca offered, wishing she could offer them something more - something that would give them hope. Then again, … that was why she was here among them, was it not? Her eyes scanned the strongest men and women first, but her attention eventually fell on the small boy she had taken under her wing during the long hike up the mountain. Softly, she approached him and crouched eye level where he sat. Touching her fingertips to his chin, she lifted his gaze to meet hers. "Your sister and her guardians have fallen in battle."

Bahamut's dark brown eyes watered freely, silently at the news.

Yunalesca knew she should give the boy time to grieve for his losses, but there was no time to spare. "The army of Bevelle may be advancing toward us next. You have faithfully kept your promise to your sister, but does your heart still wish to defend your home?" she asked him. "Would you be willing to die to protect those who cannot protect themselves?"

A sob finally escaped his lips as tears trailed down his cold, red cheeks, but he nodded.

"Then I have a very special assignment for you. Come." She took his hand, stood, and returned to their ronso guides. "I'll need a place where I can speak in private - where I will not be disturbed."

One of the ronso led her further down the winding tunnels into the mountain warrens and left the trio of humans in the back of a dark, bare cavern. Then, giving Zaon her torch, the ronso left them to their business.

Yunalesca faced the child with a serious, but not patronizing, expression and tone. "We would be honored if you would assume the position of guardian of the Bevelle temple that your sister could not willingly perform because of her distraction with the blitzball player."

"Guardian of the Bevelle temple? Me?" Bahamut shook his head. "I don't know how to guard anyone. I'm not strong enough to do something like that."

"For this position, it's not how old or big or strong you are that matters. What's important is your potential toward magic and wisdom," she answered his doubts. "You are young, but I know another young one who became guardian of the temple in Besaid and has done a fine job of it because she has a capable and willing heart. I think you are capable. But … are you willing?" She could tell the boy was still frightened of the responsibility. And he was obviously still terribly sad thinking about the loss of his family and friends. "You won't have to shoulder all the tasks in the temple - only two. You must judge which summoners are worthy when they ask for your aid, and then you must promise to answer with that aid when they need it."

"How will I know what to do?" he asked.

"I can't answer that question for you. You will need to find it within yourself. Do you want to stop Bevelle from hurting people?"

"Yes."

"Then you need to trust me and have a little faith that all things will work toward good in the end."

He gave a nod of consent and bowed his head, nervously awaiting her blessing.

Yunalesca summoned her magical staff and placed a hand on his head to comfort him. "There, there … You have nothing to fear. I won't harm you because you can't help us if you're not alive and strong." She began swinging her staff like a long, low pendulum before him. "I'm just going to cast a spell to anoint you to your new, honorary rank in the temple of Yevon. Relax … and sleep." As the magic of the sleep spell made him drowsy, she performed another gesture that gently lowered him to the cold, cavern floor. "Sleep the sleep of ages, in which you will feel no fear or pain ever again."

When the boy was fully under the spell, the summoner began an intricate dance, singing in an ancient tongue and casting forgotten spirit magic from another world, as she had done for all the other Fayth before him. Arcane glyphs began to write themselves over and around the child's body, until they hardened and solidified into a stone seal . A brilliant light rose from the tomb and floated around her before bursting into sparkles of light. When she finished her casting, she swooned and caught a large rock to keep her balance, but looked to her husband who was keeping watch behind them to be sure no one else in the cavern saw the secret transformation. "We will have to ask the elder ronso for the aid of his strongest men to move Bahamut to the Bevelle temple at the earliest chance. He must not be left here, forgotten."

Zaon nodded in agreement. "See if he is ready," he prompted, reminding her of their urgency.

Yunalesca waited a moment to be sure the boy's soul had time to pass from life through death into the spirit realm under the seal of the ancient spell. When she was certain he had healed enough to be resurrected, she closed her eyes and opened a portal to the Farplane, reaching out to his soul through the glyphs on his tomb drawn by the summoning spell. "Bahamut, ... I am your maker. Come back to me, child. Show us your true colors, brave heart." The glowing glyphs danced beneath her feet following her previous movements, prying into the plane of magic. Yunalesca always looked forward to the initial surprise of seeing how the soul of a Fayth manifested back into reality, but she had never seen any soul transform into such a large, powerful form as what the small boy had become. "Incredible," she breathlessly whispered and bowed before him.

))((

Bahamut rose from the glyphs and felt his body coalescing with warmth and light from a deep sleep. But when he looked down at his hands, he saw they had long, sharp talons and scales that gleamed like polished ebony. He cried out in confusion and fear, but instead a throaty shriek that turned into a roar issued from his sharp maw. He flicked colorful wings and a long tail, nearly falling over the additional appendages as he turned around in the cramped cavern space. Then, he gazed down at his own body entombed in stone. He had been too young to study the Fayth yet, but he shrieked again as he realized that was what he had become.

"Bahamut, you must be brave!" Yunalesca sensed his fear and tried to calm him. "You are now a mighty aeon with powerful magic unique to you that you have yet to discover! Those people out there need you! They are all that's left of Zanarkand! Don't let anything into this cavern that might harm them. Do you understand?"

The dragon lowered his head and placed his forefeet on the tomb where his human body was preserved in magic and stone. Then, after a moment, he crawled forward behind Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon to rejoin their ronso guide. Fear in a ronso's eyes was a rare sight - almost as rare as a black dragon.

"Do not be afraid," Yunalesca told the ronso. "He has volunteered to help us like the other aeons. Please take us back to our people."

The ronso was doubtful and worried. "Boy should not be left alone."

"He is sleeping, ... dreaming, in fact," Yunalesca told her, hooking an arm in hers to prevent her from going behind them to check on him. "His dreams will make the aeon strong. I will be back for him," she promised. The ronso accepted that and led on.

Bahamut squeezed himself through the tunnels trying to keep pace with the small ronso, and even smaller humans on their way back to the inhabited caverns. Just when he was beginning to wish the summoner had waited until she was outside to summon him, he heard the Zanarkand refugees gasp in awe as they scuttled quickly out of the way in astonishment and fear.

"This is Bahamut, your new guardian," she told the survivors. "He will not harm you. Heed him well and, above all, _honor_ him. Always remember that he willingly gave his life for you." Yunalesca gave the people a few minutes to accept that the new aeon wouldn't hurt them. Then, she and her husband led him outside into the snow and wind. "Their lives depend on you now, dear one. Hold to your promise and protect them." Yunalesca stroked the dragon's black scales.

Free of the tight confines of the cavern, the large, black dragon sat down in the snow and watched the summoner and her guardian continue down the road toward the Zanarkand temple, where Yu Yevon stood watch as the sole guardian of his crumbled city. Bahamut looked at the cold weather conditions around him and realized the temperature meant nothing to his thick hide and scales now. Was he really dead? He still felt so … alive. His young soul felt very insecure about his strange new state of existence, but he faithfully remained at his post to perform his duty. He had little choice now.

))((

Zanarkand's prisoners of war were flown back to Bevelle and led toward the temple they were supposed to have been trying to secure and protect. Lenne expected to see Founders military uniforms all over the place, due to some kind of siege, but to her surprise, she didn't see a single one. Instead, the Yevonite summoners went about their usual business, closing up shop for the night after a typical day of teaching students, training summoners, and performing sendings or healings within the city. They smiled and greeted one another with ease as if nothing at all had happened with Zanarkand.

"Please inform Maester Renuta that the first batch of Zanarkand prisoners are here," the Bevelle warrior leading them spoke to one of the temple summoners.

"Certainly." The summoner cast an uneasy look at the line of dirty, bloody, distraught prisoners and their cuffs, and his eyes lingered on Lenne for a moment. "Take them below, and I'm sure he'll be right with you," he told the warrior.

Lenne didn't know his name, but she remembered his face. She'd met him twice before, once for training, and once when he was seeking a guardian - both in Zanarkand. Why would a temple summoner be taking another summoner prisoner when he should be negotiating to set her free? She thought about giving him a piece of her mind using some of Shuyin's choice words, but she honestly didn't know what to say about it. She had no idea what was going on anymore.

The warrior monks within the temple took over the task of escorting the prisoners down below the ground level. Lenne had never been below the ground level of the Zanarkand temple. She wasn't even sure it had one. But she'd never seen anything like this before. Bright, pulsing lights that looked like circuitry were everywhere here - on the translucent conveyor paths that carried them further down, in the lifts, over the walls, even in the ceiling and floor far below the suspended framework of catwalks. "What is this place?"

"You're _inside_ Spira now, instead of sitting on top of her," the warrior monk walking at her side informed her.

"The ship ..." Lenne was awed, momentarily forgetting the danger she was in.

The prisoners were led to another level that at first glance seemed to be a beautiful room full of large bird cages suspended by long chains above long waterfalls. But upon closer examination, Lenne realized it was a confinement chamber. The cages were ornate, as was the rest of the temple, but they were cages all the same. One cage per prisoner was lowered, and everyone was placed far enough apart that communication couldn't be accomplished without shouting. Her cuffs were not removed until she was secured inside the cage, and then the cage was raised by its thick bronzed chain and pulled back into place over the churning waterfall pool below. Should she try to escape, if the fall didn't kill her, the turbulent water would. And there was no telling what else awaited foolish escapees within its depths.

Lenne gripped the bars and sank to her knees. She wondered how long she would have to stay locked up, but more than that, she feared that if Shuyin and Zen were ... No … She couldn't accept that - not after having witnessed the pyreflies rising across the battlefield. It was too horrible to think about.

Several minutes later, a man in Yevonite robes came to stand before each of the prisoners' cages with a couple of the temple's warrior monks. Lenne paid them no attention until they came to her cage, and then she was stunned to see that this man was wearing the robes of a maester. He was one of the governors of the temple. "Why is a temple of Yevon taking summoners prisoner?" she demanded.

The maester had a round body and a round face that did nothing to offset the sharpness of his hawk-like nose and eyes. He scrutinized her for a moment, as he had all the others, and then called up to her. "Are you a summoner, or a black mage?"

Surely if this maester knew who she was - knew who she was supposed to be - he would release her. "My name is Lenne. High Summoner Yevon assigned me duty as guardian of this temple. I was to come with Lady Yunalesca to install an aeon within these halls." She stood and shook her bars. "I demand that you release me at once and explain yourself!"

The maester's expression changed considerably. "Lower the cage," he told the guards, and one of them broke away to perform the command.

Moments later, Lenne's cage was lowered to the floor, but she was not released as she expected she would be. "Why are you doing this?" she anxiously persisted. "You should be helping us!"

"So, you are Lenne. I am Maester Renuta. While I can say it's nice to finally meet you, I can't say I'm glad you're here. Although, I am relieved you are here under these circumstances rather than as our Fayth."

"As your Fayth?" Lenne squinted at the man, thinking either she heard him wrong, or he was horribly ignorant of Yevon's teachings in spite of his position. "I'm _not_ your Fayth," she explained in an obvious and simplistic tone because clearly she was still alive. "I'm here to teach your summoners how to pray to the Fayth to summon its aeon." She followed the maester as he paced around her cage. "If we can get Lady Yunalesca into this temple, she could put the Fayth in place and ask it to save what's left of our summoners, mages, guardians, and warriors. Please! One more aeon might at least help them escape before it's too late!"

Maester Renuta chuckled to himself. "You are quite naïve to be offered such an honorary position, summoner. Either that or your unquestioning faith in Yu Yevon won it for you. What do you think a 'temple guardian' is exactly? As the guardian is the sword and shield to the summoner, so the Fayth is the sword and shield of the temple. Each of the other temples' guardians has been entombed as a Fayth. I know this for a fact because one of our friends from the Zanarkand temple accompanied Lady Yunalesca on those journeys and reported back to me about it. Lord Yevon wanted you to be a willing sacrifice so he could bury you, … alive." He stepped closer, but let that sink in for a moment. "Once your soul is trapped and bonded within that seal, he has power over you and can summon your spirit back to life as an eternal guardian."

"No. Yevon wouldn't do something like that. It goes against his own teachings," she argued, but all of Shuyin's doubts and warnings came crashing down on her. She shook her heard refusing to believe it was true, but her faith in that denial was slipping. "The Fayth probably offered their services to Yevon while still alive, so when they died fighting fiends they could continue to be of service."

"Is that what Yevon teaches, or is that your own theory? My friend at the Zanarkand temple has witnessed the Rites of the Fayth, and believe me, ... the victims are very much alive until death comes by suffocation after being melded into stone. Although, I'm willing to believe he's not telling the entire truth about it. It is unethical to treat people so, and therefore, our temple here at Bevelle will not condone it."

"_Your_ temple? Your temple belongs to _our_ temple!" she angrily corrected him.

"Not any more," he frankly informed her. "We disagree with the way Yevon is running things from Zanarkand. His philosophies on summoning the dead have gone beyond what is moral. He says it is for the greater good, but we want no part of performing human sacrifices. It is enough for a summoner to be able to do white magic and send the dead. Besides that, he crossed the line of political safety when he declared Zanarkand's independence from the Founders. That immediately brought every other temple of Yevon under suspicion of mutiny - especially here in Bevelle where we have access to the ship's controls. Ambassador Guregohe from the Founders came to put us under a lock down as soon as Yevon announced Zanarkand would not cooperate with the restrictions on magic. I knew he was planning on putting an aeon in here, and frankly I didn't want it. So, Guregohe and I reached an ... agreement."

Lenne's eyes narrowed. "Agreement? You mean _conspiracy_. Your _friend_ in Zanarkand was a spy, and _you_ are a traitor."

Renuta smiled at her harsh accusations. "Conspirators, perhaps. Traitors, … no. We're keeping the summoning arts from becoming defiled with any more necromancy. We will continue to teach the majority of Yevon's philosophies, white magic, and Rites of the Sending. We will even honor his name as our founding leader. But we refuse to teach anyone how to call the dead back to life, … in any form for any reason. There must be _some_ restrictions placed on magic, or it becomes unethical."

"You killed an entire city of people without any regard to who was innocent or guilty. How dare you preach at me about ethics!" Lenne shouted at him.

"The Zanarkand temple was corrupt with necromancers! Such dark arts could plunge Spira into an unending cycle of destruction! The Founders want Yu Yevon executed. Zanarkand needed _cleansing_."

"Most of the people you killed knew nothing about the Fayth or aeons!"

"Ambassador Guregohe thought that the rest of Spira needed to see what would come of anyone defying the Founders rights to command this ship that _they_ built and own. Zanarkand was to be made an example while removing the problem at the root," he frowned at her. "Bevelle will head the temple of Yevon from now on, since we are their governing seat for Spira, after all. Now we can work together in Spira's best interest, rather than coping with Yevon's obstinate disagreements from afar. Zanarkand and Yevon have become … a liability. It's best that they trouble Spira no more."

Lenne trembled as she glared at him, but she wasn't sure if it was from fear or anger about what was happening without the Zanarkand temple's knowledge. The Bevelle temple had betrayed Zanarkand. Yevon and Yunalesca had betrayed her. She had lost Shuyin and Zen and countless others on the battlefield. She would probably never see her little brother again, and she had lost the rest of her family and friends and everything she owned in the massacre that started the war. The summoner gave one loud burst of rage as she shook the door bars on her cage, but then slid to the floor to weep with frustration.

Maester Renuta turned away from the caged summoner to speak with the warrior monk watching this area of the confinement chamber. "This one warrants special attention. I want to speak with her further about Zanarkand's affairs, but it's late, we're both tired, and I'm awaiting reports from my scouts before making any final decisions. Have her cleaned, fed, and presentable in my office first thing tomorrow morning."

Lenne's chest rose and fell with quickening anxiety as she watched him walk away. Then, she was cuffed once more, and her door was unlocked and opened. "Let go of me!"she protested and tried to resist, now that she knew the temple was responsible for the carnage. But she knew she was too weak to fight and struggling to escape would only end in her own death now. When she stopped protesting, she was escorted toward the prison bathroom and handed a plain robe to change into.

"If you wish your own clothing cleaned and returned, leave it by the door," the warrior monk told her before he unchained her and left her alone behind another locked door.

Lenne looked at herself in the mirror. She could hardly remember putting on her favorite dress a couple of mornings ago, so that she'd be ready to celebrate with Shuyin and her friends when the Abes won the Jecht Cup tournament. The dress looked worse than she did now. After setting her boots and clothing by the door, she stepped under the shower head. Mud and blood rinsed out of her hair and off of her skin to disappear down the drain, but water could not wash away the memories.

When she had redressed in the heretical robe, she came out of the bathroom with bare feet and wet hair and offered her wrists. The warrior monk, glad for her cooperation, whatever the reason, escorted her back to her cage, where she was once again locked in, uncuffed, and hoisted above the churning water.

Lenne leaned her head against the bars and started to cry when she heard a loud zap a short distance away and looked up, startled. One of the black mages taken captive with her had tried to send a thundaga spell into the lock of his cage, but a permanent reflect spell on the cage made it backfire, electrifying the entire contraption. The mage fell dead within his confines. The summoner gasped and turned her back to the horrid sight. Then, she buried her face in her hands and tried not to relive the nightmares she had witnessed that day.

))((

When Shuyin woke that night, he was lying on and under a lot of furs next to a warm fire in an otherwise dark cave that was cluttered with more strung-up furs, dried meats, storage urns, and several spare lances. Obviously this was a ronso dwelling, but that was small comfort. He started to roll onto his side to get up, but his body ached as if he'd been tackled by a whole team of behemoths. He moved each stiff limb, glad to feel that his body was whole, but when he sat up, he found multiple new scars from rather large wounds on his chest and torso, many of which he didn't even remember receiving. "Lenne." His throat was dry, but he called to her, thinking she was the one who healed him.

"Lenne not here. Lenne taken to Bevelle."

Shuyin was startled by the gravelly voice and twisted to look behind him. The speaker was a female ronso he'd never met before. "And Zen?"

"Zen speak with Elder Kinan about machina war." She moved closer, and a large, blue hand with sharp claws gently cupped his shoulder, encouraging him to lie back down. "Do not disturb Elder. Zen comes to you. Stay here," the lion-woman added with a snarl, as if daring him to contradict her. Then, she stood and left the cave.

Pulling the furs back around his shoulders to keep out the mountain chill, Shuyin tried to remember the last thing that happened before he was knocked out. He remembered shoving Lenne behind him, between himself and Zen. He remembered the tingle of the healing spells that sustained him until Lenne had nothing left to give. And he remembered killing several soldiers - human soldiers, not just machina robots. He never thought he could have done such a thing. And Lenne ... If she was in Bevelle, she was probably taken as a prisoner, but maybe the temple could somehow negotiate a way to free her. After all, she was the chosen one to be their guardian, but perhaps they didn't know that. He felt like he should be doing something to help, instead of lying on his back, now that he was healed. Waiting without knowing anything was harder than being on the battlefield, in some ways.

As soon as Zen entered the cavern, Shuyin sat up with anxiety. "What happened to Lenne? Did you see? Do you know for sure? Is she okay?"

Zen was always solemn, but in this case the mood actually matched his face. "Zen hurt on battlefield, but saw Lenne taken to airship. Shuyin hurt, too, but still alive. Pokoa found us. Pokoa's white magic healed us."

Shuyin guessed Pokoa was the female ronso that had also threatened to bite his head off if he disturbed the Elder.

"Zanarkand lost many," the ronso continued. "Bevelle lost few. Bevelle army quiet, but camp at foothills of Gagazet. Bad sign, Elder Kinan says. More bad news for Zanarkand. Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon meet with Lord Yevon there."

Shuyin let the news sink in, realizing the same thing that the ronso elder must have. "They want to wipe us off the map. They want to launch another attack to finish us off." He could hardly believe the extent of Bevelle's hatred toward them. He closed his eyes and listened to his own heartbeat trying to calm the rage that was growing inside of himself. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he opened his eyes to wipe it away. "I have to go to Bevelle," he decided. "I have to get Lenne out of there." He started to reach for his yellow blitzball hoodie, but Zen thrust a large hand into his chest to push him back.

He winced at the ronso's strength, but grasped the corded forearm in a less-than-friendly grip in warning. "Don't try to talk me out of it! Either come with me or get out of my way!"

"If Shuyin wear blood, raise suspicion in Bevelle." Zen moved to a chest in the cavern and withdrew the spare blitzball uniform that Shuyin had given him. This was apparently his cavern, and he had apparently brought it home with him on one of his return trips.

Shuyin looked at the uniform with uncertainty. "It was a gift, … because you like blitzball so much."

"Much more than gift now. Key to free Lenne. Lenne more important than blitzball."

Shuyin accepted the gift back with a nod of gratitude. "Thank you."

"Still from Zanarkand, but maybe Bevelle not know clean Shuyin make trouble for them." He picked up his friend's sword and dropped it at the foot of the fur bedding. The ronso gave him a fierce snarl, then lifted the flap over the door and left to make other preparations.

The trouble-maker allowed himself a small smile. He hoped for Lenne's sake, the ronso was right.

))((

When Shuyin was washed and dressed in clean clothes, with his sword strapped back on, he met Zen outside of his cavern. Zen had been gathering a few supplies and cleaned himself up, as well. And he insisted on accompanying his friend to Bevelle to look for their summoner. On their way out of the village, however, they were both startled to see a large, black dragon guarding the entrance.

The dragon jumped to its feet and bellowed at them, causing both of them to draw their weapons. Its large, horned head swooped low in attempt to get closer to them and sniff them. But the unintelligible growls and grunts it projected at them only made them back further away.

"Must be Yunalesca's last aeon," Shuyin suggested. "We could have used something like that on the battlefield," he grumbled, but walked a wide circle around it due to its strange behavior.

The dragon jumped in front of them to block their path, then let out a deep-throated roar.

"Aeon not want to lose more people," Zen interpreted the action. "Aeon guard ronso and humans in village."

Shuyin shook his head, but spoke to the aeon hoping he would understand him like Valefor did. "My summoner was taken to Bevelle. I have to go get her."

The dragon quieted. The intelligence behind its eyes seemed disturbed to hear that, but it did not move.

"Get out of my way!" he angrily ordered and snapped his sword down in front of him. He was willing to fight the aeon, if he had to. "It's my choice to leave! You protect the village, not me!"

To his surprise, the black dragon released a sorrowful cry, but backed away to let him pass. Shuyin was unsettled about the dragon's reaction, but he ran forward with Zen before it could change its mind. As they ran down the snowy slopes toward the mountain pass, they could hear the dragon bellowing another oddly mournful roar behind them.

))((

In the dark of night, the pair traveled from Gagazet back down to the grasslands. Though the land was filled with shadows now, the moonlight and the flickering campfires of the army's heavily guarded units revealed that the use of such heavy machina fire power and strong black magic had turned the flat, green prairie into a vast, new graveyard bearing permanent scars - deep, gouged-out craters and long, cliff-like trenches. The bodies of Bevelle's deceased warriors had been transported back to the city, but the shells of thousands of machina still littered the ground. The bodies of Zanarkand's dead could not be transported home, so most had been left lying in the open without summoners to attend them. Shuyin frowned in anger at their disrespect for Zanarkand's fallen, … and their stupidity in trying to get rid of Yevon and his magic in a way that would only create more fiends. More fiends means you need more summoners! All that death, ... only to create more death? All that destruction had been pointless and only made things worse. Couldn't they see that?

As they continued down, Zen took note of the changed terrain and used it to his advantage, leading the way across the plain via the pitted plugs that had been blown out of the ground. Shuyin was grateful he had the ronso on his side because of his better night vision, predatory instincts, and hunter's skills. The ronso's blue body even blended into the darkness better than his own, so that all Shuyin could see of him in the night was his shock of long, white hair, his sharp yellow horn, and his luminescent, pale green eyes. Humans, he decided, had greatly underestimated the ronso and their primitive culture.

"Land open to large cliff on the right," Zen told him in hushed tones when they paused behind a large, immoble machina to survey the remainder of their stealthy crossing. "High rock wall to left. Less danger on left," he decided. "Go around campfires. Stay close to rock wall and low in shadows. Cleft between walls not far. Stop there to rest."

"What about fiends? We won't be able to fight them without making noise."

"Ronso fight with stealth. Shuyin take cover."

"But -"

"Shuyin take cover," Zen insisted. "Ronso take fiends. Shuyin go to Bevelle."

Shuyin backed down beneath his friend's glowing glare and soft growl. Lenne needed someone to arrive in Bevelle, so he reluctantly agreed to take a back seat on the fighting.

Zen crouched low as he ran left toward the cliff wall. Shuyin was agile and quick enough to keep up with the beast-man's challenging path through the nearly blind environment. He tried hard to stay directly behind him knowing one false step could turn an ankle or send him into an unexpected pit, but he felt conspicuous against the dark rock with his golden hair, fair skin, and patches of yellow on his uniform. When they encountered a small pack of lupines that had caught the scent of the dead, Shuyin obediently stayed out of range and continued creeping forward to let the ronso deal with it alone. Zen took on all three, enduring their bites, but silencing their snarls and howls with spells to prevent the fight from drawing the attention of the Bevelle patrols. Afterwards, he drank down a bottle of potion to mend his injuries and ran to catch up with the blitzball player.

Eventually, they came to the cleft between the walls and sat down to rest. They were now behind the the majority of the army's camp, but there were still patrols roaming the back area near the main road. Shuyin crouched on one knee to count the number of guards blocking their intended path. "Twenty, … and there's probably more on the road into Bevelle."

Standing tall, Zen scanned the area around them. "Go over cliffs."

The blitzball player looked up at the steep, rock walls. "Are you _crazy_? Do I look like some kind of bird or insect? I don't have wings," he hissed.

"Shuyin good jumper like ronso. Other cleft that way with ruins. Climb ruins. Jump to top of cliffs. Go around top to Bevelle." Zen didn't give him time to argue before slinking out of their hiding place and hurrying along the wall toward the other crevice in the cliff that he mentioned.

Shuyin growled under his breath at the assumption that he was capable of such a stunt, but ran after him. He soon found himself cornered between two rock walls with no other place to go except right into the Bevelle patrols. A noise not too far away had caught the attention of the army and a scuffle broke out agains fiends beginning to prey upon them in their sleep. Shuyin shrugged off their concerns and leaped up to catch the edge of the low rise and pull himself over it. The ronso followed beside him and then led the way further left, jumping over some fallen monolithic stones down into the small ancient ruins. Shuyin hopped over the stones behind him, but then paused at the sight of the discovery. "Woah. Is this one of Yevon's temples?"

"Ronso not know about Yevon temples. Ruins of age before Yevon, like ruins above Gagazet. Yevon maybe use, but looks dead." Zen climbed up on some stones among the ruins and jumped as high as he could reach. Catching the dirt-and-rock ledge with his claws, he was able to break his fall enough to reach one hand beyond and dig further into the softer grass-covered ledge to pull himself over it.

Shuyin looked at his human hands. Even wearing a blitzball glove to ensure his grip on his sword wouldn't help him latch onto a vertical, rock surface. "There's no way -"

Before he could finish his complaint, the ronso had wrapped the belt of his pouch around the head of the lance to fashion something for his smaller friend to grab onto. "Jump."

Shuyin shook his head at the crazy idea, but took the leap on faith. His hands caught the covered lance head and he held on tight while the strong ronso pulled him the rest of the way up. "Thanks." While the ronso fixed his gear back to normal, Shuyin stayed low and crept across the flat clifftop to look down the other side along the road to Bevelle. He could see the lights of the city from where he sat and paused to marvel at the spectacle for a moment. "It's really pretty up here. Lenne would probably like to see this … someday."

Dawn was on the horizon, so they had to move quickly. They weren't far now, but they still had to get to the other side of the road without crossing any of Bevelle's patrols. "Narrow place for jump to other side at end of cliffs. Shuyin must not miss jump."

"No kidding. Shuyin miss jump, Shuyin go splat." He shot the ronso a flat expression as he continued forward to the place Zen indicated. "Good thing I practiced that sphere shot a lot."

Zen put a finger to his lips as they approached the campfire of the patrol below. They both knew stealth mattered just as much as acrobatics now. When the ronso saw that all the guards were looking away, he made the leap, landing safely on the other side of the cliffs between the grasslands and Bevelle.

Shuyin crept to the edge and waited for the same opportunity. Then, he crouched, ran, and leaped. His feet touched down safely on the other side, but he dropped to a roll to help slow his momentum. Then, they both crawled through the grass to the Bevelle road on the other side and continued at a crouched run toward the waterside end of the city. There, they both dove from the cliffs into the ocean and swam toward the docks. When they stopped to rest, the blitzball player leaned back against a barnacle-covered post beneath the pier.

"Shuyin wait here. Ronso move more freely in Bevelle than Zanarkand blitzball player. Zen get Shuyin disguise." The ronso crept back out of their hiding place and continued sneaking the rest of the way through the large city by himself.

Shuyin closed his eyes and told himself to stay put. Lenne had to be here somewhere, but if he wanted to find her, he needed the ronso's help. He decided they should check the temple first. If Lenne had not found her way there, they could at least report what happened with Zanarkand and ask for shelter and food before searching the rest of the city. If Yu Yevon had just let the summoners stay with the refugees, she would have been safe. Yu Yevon had been overconfident and blinded by his own pride, and his summoners and citizens had paid the price. Shuyin was beginning to hate the high summoner as much as he hated Bevelle now. The man was more concerned with his idealistic city than the real people who lived there. This war had gained nothing for Yevon or Zanarkand, just as it had gained nothing for Bevelle. Groaning at his rising frustration and despair, Shuyin made himself dismiss politics to focus on Lenne. The only thing that mattered now was saving her.


	22. Chapter 22: Bevelle's Secrets

Chapter 22: Bevelle's Secrets

A few hours later, the ronso returned with a robe, but Shuyin recognized the pattern in the design immediately. "This is a temple robe. I can't go into Bevelle dressed like a priest of Yevon. That's worse than going in dressed like a blitzball player."

"Temple not under attack. Go to temple. Look like belong there," Zen answered.

Shuyin was relieved to hear the temple had not been attacked. That meant his initial idea to stop and ask for food and shelter once Lenne was safe might actually work. But he wondered why it had been spared, since that would have been the more logical place for Bevelle to strike first. With no other plan at his disposal, he pulled the robe on over his uniform and tugged the hood down low over his eyes. Then, he and Zen began their cautious approach through the city from the docks.

Shuyin had never been to Bevelle before, so he had no idea where he was, but finding the temple was easy because of the way it towered over the rest of the red-walled city. Keeping his head down to avoid any possible recognition among blitzball fans, Shuyin followed the ronso past the light posts and down the straight and narrow streets.

Bevelle had always been the center for governing affairs on Spira, so it carried an atmosphere of royalty about it. Therefore when the temple had been commissioned, it was added onto the governor's palace already there. And though it seemed strange, the ronso had been right. There was no siege, and no one tried to stop and question them - not even upon walking through the heavily guarded doors. Zanarkand had been attacked by Bevelle on two fronts, yet here, no one seemed to know or care about it. It was eery.

"Well, the temple here is not only still standing, it's sickeningly calm and normal compared to what the temple in Zanarkand looks like now," Shuyin groused under his breath. "Something's not right about this." The feeling of mistrust that crept over Shuyin regarding Lenne's temple guardian assignment returned. "Ask someone where the prisoners are being held," Shuyin whispered as his eyes darted around.

Zen snorted with a low growl. "Ronso already ask questions to 'borrow' robe. Ronso look suspicious if ask too many questions. Human in temple robe not suspicious here." But he planted his lance on the floor, rather than securing it behind his back, and his tail twitched showing a hint of nervousness about their serene surroundings.

"Fine. Wait here." Shuyin wandered around the semi-circle corridor toward the temple's back rooms, not quite knowing what he was searching for yet. "Excuse me," he caught a passing warrior monk. "I'm … from the temple at Kilika. Our summoners there had a question about our new aeon, Ifrit. I was hoping to speak to the summoner in charge of the aeon here. Do you know where I can find her?"

"Oh. Didn't they tell Kilika? There will be no aeon in the Bevelle temple – not after everything that's been happening in Zanarkand. You'd have to speak with Maester Renuta about that. He's the one that's personally overseeing all the aeon and Zanarkand operations."

Shuyin's brows drew together. "What Zanarkand operations?"

"You know - the cleansing."

He had to remind himself that ignorance might raise suspicion. Instead of asking more questions, he issued a confirmation. "The temple _here_ is ... cleansing the temple _there._"

"And everything's going according to the maester's plan, based on what I've heard. In fact, they just brought in a bunch of Zanarkand prisoners to put in the confinement chambers below." The warrior monk tilted his chin, now looking at him with suspicion. "Didn't they tell the other temples of the negotiations reached with the Founders?"

_Those bastards! Traitors!_ Shuyin's heart raced irregularly at the news. "No one told us anything about that."

"Speak with Maester Renuta," he suggested again. "Take the lift up to the balcony. You'll find him up there, although you may be told to come back tomorrow, since it is rather late."

"Thank you." Shuyin backed away and returned to his ronso friend. "Remember Yevon saying something about a traitor telling Bevelle about the location of the aeons? I think we just found them."

"Them ... More than one?"

"The whole damn temple." Shuyin was so angry he could barely keep his voice soft and low as his eyes searched for the lift and then the balcony. "The maester of this temple is the one behind the attacks. Apparently, they reached an agreement with the Founders without Yevon and didn't bother to tell Zanarkand the result."

Zen frowned. "Sounds like Zanarkand _was_ result."

"Prisoners are being kept below in some kind of confinement chamber. Lenne's probably among them, but I'm going to speak to this maester first and try to find out what's going on. Wait here for me, and if I don't come back, go back to Elder Kinan and Yevon and tell them Maester Renuta is the one responsible for the 'cleansing' of Zanarkand, and it sounds like the other temples will be cleansed of their aeons as well."

The ronso's thick brow furrowed with deep concern. "Bevelle dare not destroy all other cities on Spira. But if maester betrayed Yevon, maester will not be kind to Lenne or Shuyin."

"I guess Yevon was right after all. The Founders are itching to destroy everything because we're just a failed experiment to them." Shuyin gave the ronso a wary glance, then stepped onto the lift and looked nervously toward the balcony as he touched the controls. The lift, however, decided to go down. His tried to find a means to make it go the other way, but it didn't stop until it reached the bottom level of its destination. Stepping off of the lift, the blitzball player stared with awe at the electrified pulses of light and circuitry around him. "Woah. Spira really is a ship." Studying it was one thing. Seeing it was another.

The lift rose back to the upper level, and that probably meant someone else was coming down. After a brief study of the catwalks and conveyor paths, he could only guess which one would lead him back up. Behind him, he could hear the lift touch down again, and the voices of the riders hushed for a second. He knew he'd been spotted.

"Oi! Summoners aren't supposed to be down here."

One thought outweighed that warning. Lenne was probably down here somewhere. Shuyin chose one of the passageways … and ran. He didn't know where he was going, but he wasn't going to stop and ask for directions now. He could hear their heavy boots in pursuit as he ran through a large opening and out onto a ledge, barely catching himself in time to avoid a nasty fall to what seemed to be a dark, bottomless pit. Pushing down his hood, he frantically looked around for a new direction, but pumping and grinding machina completely surrounded him. The ship's engine maybe? There was nowhere to go but down, and though he couldn't see the bottom of the gaping hole, there were floor levels built within the upper rim of it – rings of stacked balconies. He saw no stairs or lifts that led to them, though.

"Stop right there! You're under arrest!" one of the warrior monks in pursuit shouted.

He checked over his shoulder and knew he'd have to improvise. Stripping off the robe to prevent it from hampering his movement, he hopped onto the ledge and jumped, landing on a large, thick chain. Sliding down the length of the bumpy chain was worse than going down a playground slide standing up, but gravity helped pull him, and years of surfing and acrobatics gave him the sure-footed balance necessary for the quick escape trick. Trying not to look down at what awaited him if he tripped, he leaped onto the solid surface of one of the lower levels as soon as he was close enough. Then, pausing only to glance up at the warrior monks who cursed his stunt, but made no attempt to copy it, he took off running again.

))((

"Just let the fiends get him," one warrior monk said to the other. "There's no escape unless he comes back this way."

"Are you kidding? Didn't you see who he was? I'd know that uniform anywhere – he's a blitzball player from the Zanarkand Abes. He could be a spy, … or worse, considering where he's headed."

"Damn! I forgot about that being down there. I'll go get back-up. No way am I going down there alone. Stay here in case he comes back."

The warrior monk who remained behind sighed as he watched his comrade run back to alert the temple about the security breech. He liked blitzball, and while he did not condone necromancy, of course, it seemed like such a shame to destroy the best stadium and players in Spira. Shaking his head, he readied his gun for a possible round of fire and kept a watchful eye on the exit the Zanakand intruder had taken.

))((

As Shuyin ran through the tunnels of the lower levels, he came across some interior towers guarded by some very large machina warriors. He could have gone back and taken another passage, but thinking that towers would either lead him back up or house the prisoners, Shuyin unsheathed his sword. Thanks to his battlefield experience, he now knew where to find critical circuitry areas. Making the most of his agility and speed magic, he attacked the machina warriors until they were nothing but heaps of buzzing and beeping scrap metal. The tower doors, however, did not open automatically to the victor. They had combination locks on them, and each time he got a wrong combination, more machina warriors were summoned to remove him. He fought them off each time, but he was becoming frustrated at his repeated failures. "Damn it! Open up for me!"

He hit the last switch and watched as the combination lock finally turned. He had hoped at least one set of doors in the towers would open for him. Instead, it was the floor that opened wide, and once again, the path only led further down. "Crud. What kind of sick amusement park architect designed this place? This is worse than Zanarkand's one-way and dead-end streets."

Leaping down each step to the one below it, he then ran full speed through the first corridor, ... until it branched in three different directions. Fiends began to blink into view here and there, as if waiting for his challenge to pass through them. "Oh, this can't be good." Looking back over his shoulder, he decided forward was still better than backward, so growling under his breath, he picked one of the passages and headed straight for the fiends, sword ready.

Shuyin avoided and fled from as many fiends as he could. His goal was to find Lenne and escape alive, not waste time or energy defeating every spirit that haunted the dungeons under Bevelle. He was questioning why there were so many spirits beneath the temple, though, when he finally came to a large opening at the end of one hall and stopped to catch his breath. The room he'd stopped in was dark except for a few guide lights around the very high walls and ceiling. Multiple cables spilled down from the dome and walls, where they connected to something hovering precariously behind a small round platform over an endless drop into nothingness. It was the largest, most frightening looking machina he had ever seen.

Curiosity got the best of him. Walking toward it with caution, he thought it looked more like a weapon of some kind than part of the ship's engine. Someone had mentioned a rumor regarding Bevelle's ultimate weapon. Was this it? Was this the machina meant to finish off Zanarkand? If so, maybe it was big enough to finish off Bevelle's army, instead, … before they could attack Gagazet. Maybe it was big enough to, at least, take on the Bevelle temple and get them out of the city.

Shuyin checked over his shoulder. No fiends or people seemed to be following, so he sheathed his sword, moved closer, then stopped for another study. Apparently one had to enter it from the bottom and go inside to control it. Should he try? He jogged even closer, then stopped again. Doubts ... No. _Determination._ "You know, you're all I can count on to save Lenne."

A noise clanged behind him.

Shuyin looked over his shoulder, ready to challenge anyone or anything that tried to stop him, but when nothing came of it, he moved forward again. Stepping inside of the weapon, he climbed the step ladder under the gun barrel to the controls on top of its horned, skull-shaped head. He was surprised to find the control panel was some type of keyboard – more like that of an organ or piano than a computer. That meant it was probably programmed using musical notation. Sitting down at the controls, he scanned the labels over them, until he heard the noise from the corridor again – a reminder he didn't have long to learn how to do this. He tried pushing various keys and buttons, but nothing seemed to turn the machina on.

"Hostility undetected," an almost human, yet somewhat tin-quality, voice spoke.

Startled, Shuyin almost fell out of his chair to duck behind the control panel, but when he scanned the platform below, no one was there.

"Elevated vital signs indicate urgency," the voice spoke again, sounding oddly masculine and feminine at the same time. "Defense mode initialized, but on standby. Awaiting target specifications. Please proceed."

Shuyin's eyes widened with awe. He had forgotten the summoner at Yevon's meeting said it was an intelligent weapon. "I … don't know how." He felt stupid talking to a machina and had no idea if it could hear or understand him.

"Auto-pilot initiated. Specify target name and/or location. Specify mode of attack or defense. I will select the appropriate program of action."

A cold sweat beaded his palms and forehead. "Bevelle's army - defend Zanarkand and help me get my girlfriend out of here," he told it.

"One target per program, please."

Faced with having to choose between defending Lenne and Zanarkand, Shuyin released a painful sigh. "If we get out of here, we can help fight there. Attack any Bevelle temple guards and officials who try to stop me. Help me save Lenne."

"Bevelle temple guards and officials – offensive target confirmed. Lenne - defensive target confirmed. Please identify location of Lenne." Vegnagun guided him through each step.

Shuyin felt a pit grow in his stomach. "Somewhere in the confinement chamber being held prisoner. She's a summoner from Zanarkand – a human female with long, brown hair."

The monitor above the keyboard blinked on and began scanning the hanging cages in the confinement chamber one-by-one. "Please select and confirm location of defense target 'Lenne'."

Shuyin stood in his seat and stared anxiously as the screen displayed a few empty cells and unfamiliar faces, but eventually Lenne's cage was found. "That's her!"

"Location of defense target 'Lenne' confirmed. Seeker sensors locked into position – confinement chamber, cage D-5."

As the monitor locked onto her, Shuyin put a hand to the screen. She looked so sad. "Lenne, ... I'll get you out of there. I promise."

Her head lifted and she looked around in surprise. "Shuyin?"

Surprised that she could hear him, he pressed both hands to the screen. "It's me! I'm here. I'm coming for you, okay? Just hang on."

"Where are you?" She stood and looked around more.

"Is there a sphere camera or com link nearby? I'm seeing you on a monitor."

The summoner lifted her chin and looked across the ceiling. Small spheres set into the framework around them were positioned facing each cage for monitoring the prisoners. "Shuyin!" she looked straight at him with a pleading expression. "Please, don't do anything stupid! If they catch both of us, neither of us will get out of here alive."

"Program selection for seek and protect mission enabled," the hulking machina prompted. "Ready to begin. Please choose battle strategy song."

"Who was that?" Lenne asked.

"It's ... some big machina I found that's going to help us." The visual on the monitor blinked to display a list of songs, which were accompanied by descriptions of battle mode behaviors that the weapon was capable of performing. Apparently, the key to controlling the machina was in knowing how to play the song. There was no sheet music, though. That meant he was limited to songs he already knew. "Thank you, Mom, for all those years of boring piano lessons," he muttered as he made his selection.

"Freeze! Come down out of there right now!" Several warrior monks ran into the room and aimed their guns at him.

Lenne heard the threat as well. "Shu, what's going on?"

"Hands in the air! Behind your head!"

Shuyin's eyes darted to the music selections on the screen. All he had to do was pick one and start playing it. However, if he started playing it and they shot him before he could finish programming the command, he would fail to free her. He had already failed his mother and his friend. He refused to fail another life that was precious to him.

"Fire on count of three," the warrior monk warned as the rifles were raised and aim was taken. "One, … two ..."

Shuyin placed his hands behind his head and stood in surrender. "Live to fight another day," he told himself as he moved toward the ladder and slowly descended. He was barely off of the last step when he was grabbed by the back of the shirt and thrown against the side of the weapon for a quick pat-down search. His sword was removed and his hands were cuffed behind his back.

"Shuyin?"

He could still hear Lenne's voice calling to him from the monitor before they led him away from the machina and back up to the level that housed the confinement chamber to shove him into a cage of his own.

"Zanarkand's not getting its hands on Vegnagun, pal," the warrior monk told him. "You're going to be real sorry you ever found that thing. Oh, and don't be getting any ideas about doing magic to escape. Those bars can withstand any element, and there's a reflect spell on them."

The cage was locked, his cuffs were removed through the bars, and the cage was lifted from the ground, suspended over water to further prevent escape. The warrior monks walked away, talking amongst each other and congratulating themselves for their well-timed capture.

"Vegnagun." Shuyin implanted the name in his memory and searched the other cages for Lenne, but she was apparently in a different section of the chamber. After a few long minutes, he slid to the floor, discouraged. He was still alive, so he wasn't giving up hope completely, but how was he supposed to save Lenne now that he was stuck in a cage?

))((

The following morning, every muscle in Shuyin's body ached from the discomfort of having to sleep on the bottom of the cage floor. At least the plains had grass when he was forced to sleep on the bare ground. His cage was being lowered, so he supposed that was what woke him.

"Rise and shine," a warrior monk called. Moments later, he approached Shuyin with a tray of food and slipped it through the thin slit at the bottom of the cage. "You can go to the toilet now, or you can wait until after you eat."

Shuyin's stomach felt as if it were turning inside out from shrinking, but for once he agreed with Lenne that pre-packaged stuff looked unappetizing. "Just get me out of here." He groaned as he stood and waited for the door to be unlocked.

"Hands," the warrior monk cued him first. "Turn around."

Shuyin blinked at him with annoyance, but then sighed and obediently turned his back to the bars. "One minute I'm shooting a blitzball high above a sphere pool, and the next I can't even go to the toilet by myself."

"You were trying to steal Vegnagun." The monk unlocked the door and escorted him down the walkway toward the small restroom.

"I was looking for someone," he groused in correction.

"Yeah. That's why you were up on top giving it commands," the monk sardonically replied.

"I was lost, and it offered to help."

"Anything below ground level is restricted. You shouldn't have been down there in the first place."

"The lift automatically took me down."

"Then whoever used it last probably forgot to reset the switch." He stopped outside of the restroom door. "But you could have easily switched it to go back up. Instead, you went wandering, and nobody's down here to look for but prisoners, fiends, and Vegnagun. So, don't try to act innocent about it. It's obvious Zanarkand sent you to steal Bevelle's weapons because they're bigger and have better fire power than any aeon. Machina keeps running when people get tired. Machina do unpleasant work without complaints. And if they break down, it's easier to 'resurrect' them."

Shuyin gave the guard a grim look. "Zanarkand didn't care about your weapons. Zanarkand just wanted to be left alone." He started to enter the bathroom, but then stopped and lifted his wrists out behind him. "Are you going to unlock me, or am I not allowed to this part by myself either?"

"Inside escorts are only for violent offenders or ones likely to escape." He shrugged and unlocked the cuffs to temporarily release him. "You seem pretty harmless. Just be glad I'm on duty instead of Mapok." The warrior monk gave him a smug smirk. "I hear he has a thing for blonds."

Shuyin considered decking him right then and there and making a break for it, but one natural urge was replacing another at the moment. He stepped inside and shut the door.

))((

The warrior monk shook his head in amusement and looked up at the sound of another guard entering the area. "Rehan!" he called to him. "Is the maester coming down to see the prisoner that found Vegnagun yesterday?"

"Yeah, in a few minutes." Rehan returned as he headed in the opposite direction. "Hey, did you hear that Zanarkand was on its way to attack us yesterday? Like a bunch of ghosts are going to be able to stop a crawler, huh?" He laughed before turning the corner and heading into another holding area to deliver food in there.

The door opened and the blitzball player stepped back out. The warrior monk turned around to cuff his prisoner again, but _then_ Shuyin decided to deck him and make a break for it.

The warrior monk recovered from the surprise punch, scowled at having misplaced his judgment, and gave chase. The blitzball player was fast, but fortunately, the maester had just come into the prison area and given his body guards the signal to aid in his capture. Shuyin found himself caught between them and was thrown onto his stomach on the ground until they could cuff his wrists once more.

"You shouldn't have done that." The warrior monk in charge pulled him to his feet and pushed him back down the walkway toward his cage. "Now you get an escort inside, as well."

"Got a runner?" Renuta asked as he drew near.

"This is the one that was looking for Vegnagun." The warrior monk shoved the obstinate prisoner into the cage and pulled the door shut, locking it behind him before gesturing for him to come near so he could have his cuffs removed.

))((

Shuyin fumed that his escape attempt had failed. He would have been able to break free if those other bodyguards hadn't arrived when they did. "I wasn't looking for Vegangun! What's the maester of a temple of Yevon doing with something like that anyway?" He backed into the bars to have his cuffs removed, then turned to confront the maester of the Bevelle temple, head-on.

"Vegnagun was created to defend Bevelle." Renuta answered him.

"From _what_?"

"Zanarkand, of course."

"Zanarkand never threatened Bevelle with anything like that!"

"Well, of course not - there is only one Vegnagun. But Zanarkand became a threat, so we had to create many, many more machina to defend ourselves from a likely attack."

"We didn't attack you!"

"Then what was that business that happened yesterday in the grasslands?"

"Justice! You attacked Zanarkand first!"

"Because Yevon was creating an army of aeons. The question to ask, therefore, is why was he creating an army of aeons, if not to use them for war?"

"He created them because you were mass producing machina weapons."

"Which we were producing because we heard of his aeons. It's pathetic to have to constantly upgrade our defenses to such a degree, I know, but it's better than becoming sitting ducks."

"Is it?" Shuyin sarcastically retorted.

"Well, you tell me. Our army had a complete victory over Zanarkand's, thanks to those cleverly designed weapons."

"At least Zanarkand's warriors aren't a bunch of cowards sitting behind remote controls for hunks of scrap metal!"

"But the fact remains that our 'hunks of scrap metal' had fewer casualties and won. War really is better suited for machina than humans, don't you think?"

"Except that humans still pay the price in the end." Shuyin glared at him. "And since when did the Bevelle temple gain the right to arrest people, hold prisoners, and declare war?"

"Since the Founders agreed to let the temple be built upon the old governor's palace and the entrance to the ship. Yevon ruled Zanarkand through his temple, so it shouldn't surprise you that the temple here in Bevelle has the same power. Our authority, however, extends throughout Spira now that we've joined forces with the Founders. Since the temple is fortified by the Founders' governors and machina, we have no need for aeons. Summoners will stick to mending the sick and sending the dead. Necromancy - calling upon the spirits of the dead - is now forbidden. Some things must remain sacred." Renuta studied their newest prisoner with keen interest. "You're a blitzball player, aren't you?"

"I was before my stadium was destroyed."

"I rather enjoyed watching that game sometimes. What a pity." He sighed lightly and turned his back to Shuyin to speak to the warrior monk in charge. "Don't let him out of that cage unchained again - not for anything. Our army is ready to march through the mountain pass today to finish the cleansing of Zanarkand. I doubt they can do anything to resist us, but we can't risk him attempting to steal Vegnagun again." He cast Shuyin a wary glance. "Have the summoner brought to my office as soon as possible. I'm ready for her now."

The warrior monk that had been with Shuyin raised his cage back up into the ceiling, then left for another confinement chamber.

"Summoner?" Shuyin grasped the bars and pressed his face between them. "What summoner?" His eyes followed the warrior monk's exit, and his mind marked that corridor.

"She is of no concern to you," Renuta curtly answered from below.

"Is her name Lenne?" He called out, but his question was ignored as the maester and his bodyguards left. Shuyin turned his attention back to the corridor the warrior monk had taken. Minutes later, she was escorted through his holding chamber toward the main exit. "Lenne!" Shuyin growled and rattled his cage with all of his strength, wishing it would break and drop him.

))((

Lenne stopped and looked around. "Shuyin? Shu, where are you?" But the warrior monk shoved her forward to keep her moving. She tried more than once to turn around and run back into the confinement chamber where she'd heard him call out to her, but each attempt met with a stern reprimand and push forward from the warrior monk. She told herself to be patient and look for him on the way back through.

"Ah, well, I guess maybe he was looking for someone after all," the warrior monk remarked with a smirk. "Too bad he looked in the wrong place." He walked Lenne back up the other levels to the lift and rode with her up to the balcony. Then, he escorted her into Maester Renuta's office and stepped back without unchaining her hands.

"Now then, ... Lenne." The maester seated himself at his desk and rested his elbows on it. "I will get to the point. You are alive only because of who you are. Being Yevon's chosen sacrifice means he trusts you. You know him well, and he's told you things. He told us Zanarkand no longer wished to be part of Spira, so we are going to grant his wish. The army of Bevelle is getting ready to finish the cleansing. There is probably nothing Yevon can do to stop us at this point, however, if he attempted to escape, where do you think he would run to?"

Lenne pressed her lips together in refusal to answer. She closed her eyes at the painful thought of those machina warriors raiding the ronso caverns where her little brother was hiding with all the other refugees.

"All right then, what about this army of aeons? We know about the ones in the east water gardens, but are there any others? If so, where are they located?"

Lenne could hardly call Zanarkand's aeons an army, but she remained defiantly silent.

Renuta's stare took on an impatient chill. "Perhaps, I could offer to spare your life in exchange for those two bits of information."

She lowered her chin, allowing her long, hair to form a veil between herself and her interrogator.

"What if I offer to spare the life of the blitzball player that called out your name?"

Lenne gasped and looked up. To spare Shuyin's life meant condemning everyone else. She was about to say something about the cruelty of having to choose between them, but if he were here, he would not agree to having his life being spared at their expense. She was certain of that. His loyalty was so solid, so strong, that he would rather die than betray the survivors. Besides, there was no guarantee this maester would keep his word - he had already betrayed Yevon and all of Zanarkand. Though it pained her to deny him, she turned her head toward her shoulder and tried not to cry.

"Very well, then." The maester sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Shyness is of no use to us. Schedule her for a plunge, but do it beneath his cage. He might value her life more than she does his."

"You bastard." Lenne seethed as she was escorted to the door. "He won't give in to you! You might as well push us both in!"

"Ah, she does speak." Renuta grinned. "But what kind of fool do you think I am? He's a blitzball player. His execution will be by something other than water. Perhaps we should schedule something for him beneath her cage, instead, hm? Take her back to her cage until I can give this a little more thought," he told the warrior monk. "If the Zanarkand prisoners are no help finding Yevon, it might be time to start asking the ronso a few questions."

Lenne started to squawk in protest again, but forced herself to keep it in. Any reaction she gave toward the ronso's aid would spell disaster for everyone on Gagazet. She allowed herself to be escorted back without any trouble, … until she reached Shuyin's confinement chamber. Then, she immediately started scanning the raised cages and shouting. "Shuyin! Don't tell him anything! I don't care what he offers, don't take it! Promise me you won't bargain with him no matter what he offers!"

"Silence!" The warrior monk hurried her along the path and through the corridor into the next confinement chamber.

))((

Shuyin had been sitting in the bottom of his cage, eyes fixed on the exit, waiting for her return. "Lenne!" Standing, he rocked the cage back and forth, ignoring the tray of uneaten food that was sliding around at his feet, but the cage wouldn't budge. When he peered through the bars to the ground below, she was already gone. Leaning his forehead on his wrist against the bars, he grimaced in frustration, but at least, she was still alive. He would not give up hope while she was alive.


	23. Chapter 23: Tragic Failure

Chapter 23: Tragic Failure

The blitzball player sat on the floor of his cage, watching as the warrior monk climbed an impossibly tall ladder to change the monitoring spheres near the cages for new ones. "Why bother to record me? It's not like I can do anything interesting in here?" he groused. When the monk didn't respond, Shuyin obnoxiously raised his volume a notch to be sure he was heard. "If this war drags on for much longer, I think I may die of boredom."

The monk cast an irritated glance toward the prisoner. "Bah! The only reason the war's dragging on is because Zanarkand refuses to surrender."

Shuyin got to his feet. "You're wrong! If you'd stop attacking, there wouldn't be a war!"

"We're not falling for that."

"Someday ... your precious weapons will end up destroying you."

The monk removed one sphere and replaced it with another, placing the used one in a bin bound for the review office. "Not as long as they stay under _our _control - which is why you're under lock and key, remember? Vegnagun's supposed to be under wraps because there's still a few kinks to work out in it. It can't tell friend from foe, or they would've used it on Zanarkand already. But now that you know where it is and almost figured out how to use it, you're going to be executed. Oh, by the way, that summoner you were trying to talk to? She asked about you. I guess you two are an item - or at least you used to be. She's going to be executed, too, for heresy once they've gotten all the information from her on Yevon. So, whether it was Vegnagun or the girl you were looking for, you failed. Guess you're sorry now that you came all this way just to rot in here, eh?" Satisfied with that response to the prisoner's growing surly attitude, he replaced another old sphere for a new one.

Shuyin's eyes narrowed on the antagonistic man. "No, I'm not sorry! I didn't do anything wrong!" He grasped the bars of his cage, but the warrior monk only tucked the review office bin under one arm and walked away with his fingers in his ears. "I know you're listening! If she was your girl, what would you do? How can you blame me for trying to use your weapon? It was the only way to save the summoner! What would you do if you were me? Let me out of here!" Shuyin watched the man exit the area with his collection of new spheres. "I want to see her," he added in weak disappointment, still clutching the bars of his cage as he lowered his head between his arms and then slumped back to his knees. Lenne was to be executed. His own fate didn't matter to him, but he was running out of time to save her.

Shuyin's cage suddenly jerked and was lowered to the ground with uneven, jarring drops. He was resilient enough for the rough handling, but the recently placed sphere dropped out of its nesting socket to the floor. He wondered what was going on, until he saw a ronso come through the same exit the warrior monk had used. "Zen ..."

The ronso used a keycard to open the door. "Find Lenne." He scooped the cracked sphere from the floor and secured it in the pouch at his hip.

"How did you -?"

"No time! Find Lenne!" The ronso passed the keycard into Shuyin's hand and ran back to the exit to stand watch. "Hurry!"

Shuyin didn't have to be told again. He ran straight to the other section of the confinement chambers and ran down the path between the cages, searching for her.

"Shuyin?" When Lenne saw him running toward her, she stood and grasped the bars of her cage. "Shuyin!"

"We have to hurry. They've put both of us on an execution list." He didn't know where to find the cage controls, and he didn't have the patience to look for them. So, he placed the keycard between his teeth and jumped up to the high cage. He pulled himself hand-over-hand high enough on the bars to flip the card into the lock and open her door. "Zen's waiting at the exit."

"It's too high. I can't jump that far," she nervously whimpered.

Shuyin was about to argue with her about it, but remembered her fear of heights. "Get on my back." He pitched the key to the ground so both hands could be free.

"What?"

"Climb on my back! Hurry!"

Lenne had doubts about this plan, but she grabbed onto his arm and neck and swung herself around to his back. Shuyin lowered himself back down to the bottom of the cage until he was low enough to drop the rest of the way. Lenne released him and jumped to the floor, then he touched down behind her. His fingers were killing him after that stunt, but she was free. He grabbed her hand to run back, when he saw the ronso running toward them instead.

"No way back yet! Go forward! Men with guns come!"

Shuyin immediately looked up at the sphere monitors and uttered a curse, but held fast to Lenne's hand as he turned to run down a different passage.

The three of them ran in the direction of the lower levels and the maze of corridors that Shuyin had previously found himself lost in, but being in them once before didn't help them look any more familiar this time. "There's got to be a loop around here somewhere that can take us back." Shuyin paused and stared at the intersecting, identical hallways, not knowing which way to go. "I think Vegnagun was that way."

"Vegnagun?" Lenne looked at him with anxiety, not sure what he was talking about.

"Bevelle's ultimate weapon mentioned at the meeting of the summoners - it really does exist, and I found it." His risky idea came back to him. "We could use it to get out of here and stop Bevelle's army from hitting Zanarkand again."

She looked at him, as if he had lost his mind. "What? No!"

"You said if we could destroy their weapons then more people wouldn't get hurt, right? Well, if we destroy the temple and their army -"

"I can't let you destroy this temple," she argued.

"The temple's joined forces with the Founders, Lenne. They're the ones that attacked Zanarkand!"

"I know, I know." She tried to keep him calm and rational, though her own speech was quick and nervous. "Maester Renuta himself grilled me about a rumor that Yevon was planning to build an army of aeons. He said Bevelle wanted no part of it. They're content with just doing sendings and white magic, so they've sided with the Founders on thinking the creation of the aeons is a sign that Yevon's magic has gone too far. Since Yevon wouldn't compromise with them, Maester Renuta did. He doesn't want an aeon in this temple, and he wants Yevon to stay away from it. Do you know why? He said this temple was built on top of the entrance into Spira's bridge - that's where we are. That's why there's a dungeon and a jail down here."

"Men with guns come!" The ronso became impatient with their conversation when they needed to be fleeing.

Picking up on the ronso's urgency, Shuyin began to panic at her lack of cooperation. "Vegnagun can help us get out of here and destroy the traitors!" he tugged Lenne's hand to come with him.

"Are you listening to me?" she hissed, refusing to budge. "If we're inside the ship's hull, then the Heart of the Farplane is right beneath us. And there's a portal to the negative realm somewhere around here as well. If you fire something as big as Vegnagun into the Farplane, it could destroy more than the temple. It could destroy the entire city, possibly the entire world! The Farplane is what keeps us alive!"

"I won't be aiming it at the Farplane," he impatiently argued. "I'll be aiming it at anyone who tries to stop us from leaving!"

"No more talk!" Zen pushed them apart, interrupting them. "Zen go one way to distract guards. Shuyin go another then come back! When guards pass, go up! Leave temple!" The ronso went running back toward the direction he came from, but looked for a portion of corridor to hide in where he could throw some magic behind their backs or at least lead them in a different direction from his friends.

Shuyin grabbed Lenne's hand again and ran in the opposite direction. Lenne struggled to keep pace with the athlete. They both looked over their shoulders at the sounds of footsteps echoing through the halls behind them. As they kept running, they came to another intersection. Lenne and Shuyin pulled in opposite directions, but his tug was stronger, causing her to fall - a fall that would cost them precious time. Still, he paused to help her stand before fleeing down a different corridor. The important thing was to keep running. It didn't matter where.

Lenne could feel herself lagging behind. "Too fast ..." She was afraid she was going to stumble again. "Haven't we been this way before?" She felt like they had been running in circles.

Shuyin spotted the opening that led to Vegnagun, pulled her into the room with him, and pressed her shoulders to the wall inside of the door. "Stay here," he whispered, catching his breath. "If you stay here where it's dark, they won't see you, and you can watch for guards." He cut her off before she could protest. "Lenne, ... if they come in, escape behind their backs. Don't wait for me. Try to find Zen and the exit."

"No!" She shook her head and grasped his hands as he tried to walk away.

"We have no other way out!" he hissed in argument. "This is a dead end!"

"You don't know how to operate something like that."

"I'll find a way. I have to." His eyes pleaded with her to trust him.

"Shuyin ..." Lenne couldn't bear the thought of trying to escape without him if he was caught, but there was nowhere else for them to run.

Shuyin jogged toward Vegnagun once more, checked over his shoulder to Lenne's position by the door one last time, and then entered the enormous robo-shell. Once more, he climbed the ladder past the gun's inner workings to the control center at the head. This time, he knew exactly what to do. He sat down and struck the opening chord to the song he chose last time he was here. His previous program settings popped back up on the control panel's monitor. Vegnagun disconnected from its power source and began to charge its laser barrel, willingly aiding him in automating as many controls as it could. The entire room went pitch black and steam began to rise from the weapon's monstrous face. The song that came from it was eerie, dark, and unbalanced sounding. Vegnagun's mouth opened, and its gates parted. The inner workings of the large gun barrel came alive with energy.

Lenne finally could stand it no longer and ran onto the platform behind him. "You must stop! That's enough!" She spread her arms and shouted at him.

Shuyin stopped playing and rose from his seat to lean over the edge. "Lenne ..." She should have been hiding.

She looked up at him, pleading for him to come back down to her and give up this idea. Lenne suddenly heard something in the hall behind the entrance and looked over her shoulder behind her with a nervous gasp.

Footsteps ... The same thundering footsteps of the Bevelle guards that had chased them through those endless halls were coming. Shuyin dropped all of his plans with Vegnagun and jumped over the side of the large machina weapon's head to slide down a long horn and run to her. They collided in each other's arms, and as he embraced her, he could feel her tremble with fear.

The overhead lights were turned on in the room and the warrior monks entered, dropping into position to aim their rifles. This time, they did not give warning, they simply raised their guns and sighted down their scopes.

Shuyin glared at them, fully willing to use his own body if necessary to stop those bullets from reaching her. He faced her with determination, but she sadly averted her gaze. That look ... when she looked away ... that was when he knew. His eyes opened in recognition of her disappointment. He had no sword, and she had no aeons. They were trapped, and not even his death could save her now. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she tried to smile for him, but he had completely and utterly failed her.

The guns fired, one after another. The bullets ripped through their bodies without mercy. Lenne was the last thought on Shuyin's mind as he fell to the cold, hard floor. His iron lungs were not strong enough to withstand the multiple puncture wounds that stole his breath away. He felt cold, ... so cold, as his heart raced irregularly then slowed and struggled. He whispered her name and reached toward her, but she wasn't even close enough to touch anymore. He saw her shed one final tear, but then recognized the relaxation in her fingers and face as she sighed her final breath. He had so many things he wanted to say to her, but instead he was forced to watch her die. And it was his fault - all his fault. He had destroyed the only person worth saving. He hated everything that led to this - Bevelle, Yevon, Zanarkand, ... everything. So much senseless death and destruction ... None of them deserved to live while Lenne had to die, ... not even himself.

He heard the footsteps of the monks approach as his stubborn lungs and strong heart fought to stay alive. But as he felt them tug on his body and turn him over, his vision darkened, his limbs became numb, and his hearing faded into the distance. Everything faded.

))((

Zen crept close to the door where he heard the execution squad fire their shots. He saw the bodies of the couple being examined to be sure they were dead. The ronso had to stop himself from charging forward and ripping every gunman in the room limb from limb, but as they began to discuss disposal of his friend's bodies, he turned and ran back in the direction he came. He ran out of the Bevelle dungeons, and then ran out of the temple before stopping to catch his breath. His heaving chest didn't hurt half as much as his heaving heart, but he removed the small sphere from his pouch and turned it over in his large hand. It wasn't much, but it was the only evidence he had of what had happened to them. The Bevelle rescue mission had been a tragic failure. It was time to return home, ... if there was anything left of it.

))((

Yu Yevon, his daughter, and his son-in-law approached the ronso village in Mount Gagazet where the faithful black dragon aeon guarded the entrance. Yevon had been as surprised as his daughter to see how the boy's aeon had manifested, but the normally regal-looking, stern man was now pale, worried, and sleepless. Like everyone else that had suffered through this ordeal, he bore a strange look of determination about him all the same. He bowed before the dragon and gave its smooth black scales a stroke of gratitude. "We are eternally thankful for your service and protection, apprentice, ... though, you are no mere apprentice anymore," he told Bahamut, then waited for him to step aside so he could enter and find Elder Kinan.

He listened to the elder ronso's report on what had passed since his refugees took shelter among the beast-folk, and thanked him multiple times for sharing their burden as friends and allies. "You have sacrificed your own safety for our sake, my friend, but I cannot ask you to continue to put yourself or your own people in harm's way any longer. I would speak with my people and take them home now."

"Zanarkand is defenseless. Not safe," Elder Kinan disagreed with the decision.

"I've come across an ancient spell that will protect Zanarkand and its people, … and all of Spira. Bevelle must be taught a lesson, so that this never happens again."

"Ronso here … if needed." Having made his final offer, the elder himself led the high summoner into the hidden caverns to reunite him with his refugees.

Yevon scanned each face in the huddled little clusters as they disbanded and came together again as one gathering. They were tired, hungry, cold, and frightened. It was a miserable way to live. "Citizens of Zanarkand," he addressed them with gravity. "Words cannot express what we have been through in the past few days, first escaping death from the attack upon our fair city, and then, for some of you, escaping death again at the hands of Bevelle's machina in the grasslands beyond the mountains. But I'm afraid … it would appear the Founders have instructed Bevelle to annihilate us."

He waited for the whispers and murmurs to die down a little before continuing. "Ronso scouts report that the army is camped at the base of these mountains and ready to march on Zanarkand one final time. I beg of you, brave people of Zanarkand, come. Come outside and look upon your city as it stands now, but remember it the way it used to be. Recall every precious moment that they stole from you, so that we will have the energy to rebuild once the threat of Bevelle is gone."

Yevon opened his arms and gestured to the cavern entrance. The refugees willingly filed out of the cavern, past the vigilant ronso, and followed their leader back along the mountain pass to gaze down at the city they once called home. It was an emotional moment for everyone, including the black dragon that watched their backs every step of the way.

The high summoner watched Bahamut as he blinked tears from his golden eyes. He knew that though he had the size and strength of ten ronso now, the Fayth's heart was still that of a small boy who had lost everyone and everything dear to him. Watching the dragon's sorrow only made Yevon more resolute. He turned his chin to look at his daughter and son-in-law. "Do you still have the terms of surrender?"

"Yes, father." She held up a scroll that they updated in the temple after she took word to him about their defeat.

"Then you know what you must do." He turned his attention to Zaon. "Take her and Bahamut to safety in the ronso village. Await my cue. When it is safe, the three of you must approach Bevelle. Do not negotiate with them. Hand them the terms, and they will either accept them or face the consequences."

Yunalesca nodded in tearful agreement and hugged her father one last time. Zaon did the same, then tapped Bahamut to follow them up the steep path toward the ronso village. Yunalesca shook her head at the idea and dismissed the aeon instead. Bahamut was reluctant to fade back into the realm of magic when he was needed in the real world. He roared in protest, but he had no choice. He could only obey.

))((

The boy's spirit returned to his tomb. Sitting up from his own body, Bahamut looked around the empty cavern and gazed down at his ghostly arms and hands. A sense of dread washed over him at having been banished during such a vulnerable outing for the Zanarkand's last survivors. What was Yunalesca thinking? If Bevelle was camped at the foot of the mountain preparing for another attack, those people still needed him! The spirit left the body behind and ran back out of the cavern. But time and space are different for spirits than mortals, and before Bahamut knew it, he was out of the village and down the mountain slope at Yevon's gathering. He felt a little dizzy from being able to flit like that, but he supposed he'd get used to it with practice.

With his daughter and her guardian on their way, the high summoner addressed his people once more. "I promised I would defend you to the utmost of my ability, and I shall keep that promise to you now. I must create a new aeon to defend Zanarkand," he informed them. "It will be the most powerful aeon ever created, and it will serve as a living armor for me, so that I may withstand Bevelle's army … alone."

A murmur went up among the crowd. One man against an entire army? How was that possible?

"I am willing to sacrifice myself to give you this new aeon. But I can't do this alone. I need your help!" The man looked as if he were about to become overwhelmed with emotion as he spoke and summoned his magical staff. "Those among you willing to dedicate your lives to the preservation of Zanarkand, show me your faith. Kneel and send me your prayers! Sing! Sing the praises of your home, family, friends! Mourn for what Bevelle has so brutally taken from you!"

Bahamut suddenly realized what the high summoner was intending to do, and his fear for the refugees being attacked by Bevelle turned into a fear of their charismatic leader. "No! Don't do it!" he yelled at the crowd, but none heard him. "He's going to turn you into Fayth!"

One-by-one the survivors of the city knelt before the high summoner and prayed. They prayed that he would be of strong courage for his sacrifice. They prayed he would protect them. They prayed that Bevelle would be punished. They prayed for their lost loved ones. And they sang a traditional Zanarkand song in defiance of the crimes committed against them. And as they sang and prayed, Yevon cast his sleep spells giving their weary bodies peace.

"No! Don't listen to him!" The boy's spirit ran toward the people to try to wake them, but his body passed right through them. "He's not telling you the whole story! You're going to die!" His breath quickened in panic. Was he still breathing? Or just imagining it? It was hard to stop being human after being one all of your life. "You can't do this to them! I'm their guardian! Lady Yunalesca, please call me back!"

"Sleep and give me your dreams, so that I may save our city. Lend me your souls to save Zanarkand, and I will give you eternal life. Give me your pain, ... your anger, ... your hate, so that I can punish Bevelle for what it has done to us." As people slumped from their kneeling positions to lying on the ground, the high summoner began to dance with a spell so rare and powerful that few people in all of Spira's history knew that it existed, and even fewer were capable of performing it. As the citizens of Zanarkand slept, they became imbued by a mysterious ancient magic. Their song continued from a realm beyond reality as their living bodies were lifted in glyphs and encased within stone, sealing their fate toward one, and only one, permanently fused purpose. Then, Yevon's powerful spell lifted the stone and secured it with magical seals into the wall of the mountain behind him.

With a cry of anguish and anger, Bahamut threw himself at Yevon and grabbed his arms and the wand, attempting to disrupt the casting. But once again, he found himself passing through his target instead of interfering with it. He was helpless in this form – even more helpless than he had been alive.

With the last of Zanarkand's survivors transformed into Fayth, Yevon began a new dance. As his body rose in the air to begin its own transformation, his long, black hair was loosed with waves of a magical wind and his entire body blackened with the combined desire for revenge on Bevelle. His lavender eyes began to glow brightly as the tendrils of hair became snake-like tentacles full of venom, and finally the rest of his body twisted and condensed into a mass of raw anger until it was no longer even remotely human. His eyes, the windows to his soul, transformed into a glowing glyph upon his new form to seal his unholy magic upon himself, forever. Then, the high summoner used his rare magic to draw upon the souls of the collective Fayth, using their energy to create a massive aeon shell that was as hard as the mountain itself. Then, Yu Yevon's new aeon form, slid into his new aeon armor and focused on exactly how he intended to punish Bevelle.

High on the mountain, the wall of the Fayth began to glow with unusual and powerful magical energy. Below the mountain, an eternal gloom began to settle over the remains of Zanarkand. The waters blackened, the standing ruins faded, and pyreflies began to rise all around it. The city was now officially dead, but a new, ultimate aeon - destruction incarnate - flew toward the mountain pass.

))((

Zen raced around and ahead of the Bevelle army as it began its hike up the mountain. Breathless by the time he arrived in his village, he barged into Elder Kinan's cavern and was surprised to see Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon among the other ronso that had just gathered for an emergency meeting. All of the ronso glared at him for such bold rudeness, and at any other time that would have been enough to make him apologize for the disrespect and bow back out. But this time he gritted his teeth in an angry snarl and offered the sphere from his pouch to his uncle. "Summoner Lenne and Shuyin dead."

"Dead?" Elder Kinan was at a loss. "Zen and Shuyin free Summoner Lenne."

Zen shook his head in apology. "Shuyin captured. Tried to escape, but Bevelle temple guns ... " He paused in controlled anger. "Both dead! Zen could not help!"

Lord Zaon was sharp enough to pick up on the disturbing news from a different angle. "The temple had guns? Our summoner was killed by our own temple?"

"Temple in Bevelle no longer temple of Yevon." Zen was still having a hard time concealing his anger. "Temple of Founders! Temple full of traitors! Temple in charge of attack on Zanarkand."

Zaon exchanged a wary glance with Yunalesca. "That explains how they knew about the aeons in the water gardens."

"They must have turned against my father right after he went down into the ship's hull and tried to speak with the captain's spirit in the Via Infinito about fleeing her orbital confines set by the Founders," Yunalesca suggested.

"Did she break free?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps she did. Perhaps that is why the Founders went ahead with the orders to strike Zanarkand." She stood and began to pace. "This changes everything. It leaves us no choice but to treat the temple at Bevelle as our most dangerous and immediate enemy. The demands for surrender must be made to Maester Renuta, as well as the Bevelle governors, and the Founders." She stopped before the ronso leader. "Elder Kinan, as soon as the temple is taken back into our possession, we are in need of some of your strongest warriors to transport the statue of the Fayth who gave his life to guard your village and that temple in Lenne's place. Will you help us move it?"

"Ronso agree." Elder Kinan looked down at the sphere that his nephew had given him and played it to see Shuyin rattling the bars of his cage and yelling at his guards. With a sad sigh, he walked to the back of the room and opened a treasure chest to place it inside. "This is something ronso elders of future generations should never forget. Ronso elders should always remember what happened to Zanarkand."

His nephew interrupted again. "Ask permission to find little brother of summoner. Boy all alone now. Bevelle army comes. Zen protect Bahamut for summoner Lenne."

Yunalesca cast a glance to Zaon at the mention of the name of the boy that she was also speaking about. He gently shook his head, indicating that perhaps it would be better to say nothing about it right now.

The elder ronso nodded in agreement with Zen's apology and suggestion to save what he could of the situation. "Strong winds guide you."

Zen turned to leave when his sensitive ears picked up a distant song. It was a haunting song with incomprehensible words - not the words of an ordinary song, but of a magic spell being woven. He thought he was imagining it, but then noticed the astonished expressions on the faces of other ronso, too.

"Song comes from mountain. Song comes from Zanarkand." Elder Kinan had a growing sense of unease. He pushed past his nephew to go outside to hear it better. Dozens of other ronso among the tribe were doing the same. Elder Kinan and Zen walked, jogged, and finally ran across the treacherous pathways between the mountain slopes toward the ruined city. More ronso from the village followed urgently on their heels to see what was happening. They all stopped in their tracks, however, once they were close enough to witness the new shape of the world behind them.

A titan of an aeon soared over the skies of Zanarkand with a cry of anguished victory, and about a hundred shining spirits surrounded by swarms of colorful pyreflies united in song where the survivors had once stood looking down on their former home. The spire that lead to the ancient ruins clouded over and the entire column and wall of grotesque, half-twisted human bodies began to fill with a thick concentration of glowing, magical particles being drawn from the plane of another dimension, in which they now existed. It looked like one of the pillars between the sea of clouds and the sky in the Farplane.

Zen ran back to the refugee cavern, all the way to the back, but not a single, living person was left behind. However, he was stunned to see Bahamut's small body entombed in the cavern floor beneath a magical seal. The ronso dropped to his knees and bowed over the magical puddle of stone. Fists clenched and a low growl formed deep within the ronso's throat, but emerged as a roar of rage and frustration. Three friends and an entire city lost in one day. It was unforgivable.

Yunalesca had followed the ronso into the cavern. "I'm sorry, Zen. I know you were close to Bahamut. Be assured he will be laid to rest in Bevelle's temple once this ordeal is over."

"Summoner Yunalesca murdered him!" the ronso growled at her.

Yunalesca bravely stood her ground in spite of the ronso's accusation. "He gave his life to protect his people when they could not protect themselves. And now he must help us reclaim the temple at Bevelle or the rest of Spira could follow Zanarkand's fate. You have no idea how important that temple is!" she defended her actions. "It guards the entrance to the ship. If we let the Founders have it, it could be the end of us all!"

Zen's pale green eyes widened in sadness and dismay at the boy's death, however peaceful it looked. While the other ronso bowed to mourn the loss of the peaceful neighboring city and its dead, Zen rose from bowing over the lost boy and cast the only remaining Zanarkand summoner alive a hateful glare. Then, he drew his lance and charged out of the hidden caverns and down the mountain pass toward Bevelle's army.

Ronso returning from Yevon's final summoning of the Fayth, saw where he was headed, drew their own weapons, and followed.

))((

The army of Bevelle, heard the unearthly song echoing from the mountain top and froze in fear. What could create such a ghostly sound?

"It's a song from another world!" one of the front runners exclaimed.

"The Farplane must have been opened and swallowed all of Zanarkand!"

"But, I thought they sealed it off! How could it open here?"

Zen stopped a short distance from their front line. He was only one ronso with one lance against an army of hundreds and their warships, but he stood strong for the memory of his lost friends and shouted down at them as if he were an army to himself. "Zanarkand is now City of the Dead! Mountain and ronso witness to their slaughter and sacrifice!"

"Bevelle never to cross mountain again!" Elder Kinan backed his nephew's cry, and his warning was followed up by dozens of ronso warriors showing themselves from among the peaks as the sun rose in the bleak sky. "Bevelle stay away from Zanarkand!"

The Fayth continued to sing their song behind them, and Yevon chose that moment to rise over the mountain and reveal his new aeon form. The army of Bevelle had never seen an aeon that big before, and they turned to flee in terror. Yevon gathered his magic to blast them. The first wave of black magic pulled everything heavily into the ground and pushed them tumbling back down the mountain away from the ronso. The second one obliterated the army into pyrefly dust. Then, with Bevelle's army disintegrated, Yevon flew over the grasslands into Bevelle itself.

))((

Back at the mountaintop of Gagazet, Lady Yunalesca turned to her husband and wept, seeing what her father had become. But after she had come to terms with her grief, she grasped the document he had drawn up and lifted her eyes to Zaon. "That's our cue." She grasped her summoning staff and drew the magical glyphs in the snow. "Bahamut, ... it is time."

The boy was drawn away from the singing Fayth and hurled back into reality. As his pyreflies solidified around his soul shaping his massive dragon form once more, he landed with ground-shaking force.

The summoner tearfully acknowledged him, and then led the way down the slopes toward Bevelle for the final showdown.


	24. Chapter 24: Unfinished Business

Chapter 24: Unfinished Business

Shuyin awoke feeling nothing, which was strange because he was sure he was supposed to feel something, having been shot so many times. He tried to look down at himself, but could see nothing, not even his own body.

_Light ... _Everything around him was a blur of light. Or maybe he was the blur of light. He couldn't distinguish himself from his surroundings anymore. In this state of nothingness, he accepted the fact that he was dead, but he remembered that he had not died alone.

_"Lenne?" _his thoughts called out to her. There was no reply. Or maybe there was, and he just couldn't hear it. If he couldn't see or feel, then perhaps he could not hear either. There was at least one thing he could feel, though - sadness. Incredible, deep sadness filled his soul. Where was she? He had to find her.

_Color ... _He began to see fuzzy shapes and small bits of color. He moved and his vision shifted, but nothing was clear. He was underwater. He knew it because of an instinctive familiarity more than anything his senses could tell him. Without form, his soul rose from his physical body, and he was finally able to look down on himself. Had he been thrown into the sea like some common criminal when all he was trying to do was save a life and stop a war? It was the same disrespect Bevelle had shown to those who had fallen on the battlefield. Unable to look at his own corpse any longer, he searched the ocean floor nearby for Lenne and soon found her in the same manner. "_Lenne ..._" He called for her soul to awaken.

There was still no reply, but her beautiful hair floated around her pretty face, and she still looked at him with that same expression of loss she wore when she died. With his memories of being alive so fresh, seeing her like that made him feel as if he couldn't breathe. Finally, he had to turn away, unable to look at her corpse any more, either. But if her body was here, why wasn't her spirit? Why did she not answer? Had she abandoned him because he failed to protect her? Did she hate him now?

_Despair …_ Though Lenne had warned him against self-loathing at Koji's death, Shuyin now felt nothing but those strong emotions. He'd let everything he cherished slip through his careless fingers. Koji had been correct when he said that he was cursed. He was now accountable for three deaths. And the angrier he became at himself and the circumstances that led to them, the clearer his eyesight sharpened.

Shuyin's spirit combed through the ocean floor marveling at the number of bodies down there. It reminded him of the disaster scene in Zanarkand's stadium. Discouraged, his spirit rose through the water high into the sky over the docks. From that high point, he saw something very large flying toward him very fast, and behind it was a wind current thick with pyreflies drawn from the grasslands battlefield. This aeon was so big, that its angelic wings easily spanned a quarter of the entire city. This aeon, however, did not feel like a guardian spirit. It was an angel of death.

The massive aeon cast a black-magic spell over Bevelle that shook the ground with enough force to shatter a good portion of it and send tidal waves crashing down on the waterfront sectors. The souls that had been drawn to this aeon from the battlefield were being absorbed into it. It was feeding on their anger and fear as it crushed the city that had taken their lives.

Shuyin's spirit was also drawn in, caught in the massive whirlwind from the back draft that scattered chunks of the city to the four winds. He felt no pain from his accidental collision, but the surge of power from the contact was repulsive. The malicious intent within the magical toxin that surrounded the hard shell was so tangible that, had he not already been dead, he felt it would have suffocated him. But unlike the other souls trailing the aeon, Shuyin struggled to break away. As much as he wanted revenge, he couldn't let himself become part of that monster. He had to find Lenne!

When the angry beast finally tucked away its wings and dove into the ocean, sending one final tidal wave over the city to wash away the broken remains, Shuyin's spirit fell away.

_Dizzy ... _Reality swam in confusion for a moment. Then, he was alone again. The other souls, possessed by the spirit's rage, had followed it into the water. Though he knew the aeon's massive body was nothing but a magical illusion, the hatred radiating from within that toxin felt very real. It lingered leaving him disoriented for a moment before he remembered who he was and what he was doing. An aeon that strong could only have been summoned by Yu Yevon to punish Bevelle for what it did to Zanarkand.

_"Zanarkand ..." _Shuyin decided Lenne might have returned home, so his restless spirit left the vicinity to begin its search for her there.

))((

Thousands of spheres bobbed on the ocean waves below. Among them were the newly collected recordings that had not survived transport from the underground cameras to the review office. Now they floated on the sea among the rest of the debris to be scattered to unknown destinations.

One sphere contained the image of a sad young woman confined in a cage. At the sound of a young man's voice on an unseen speaker, the young woman sought frantically to find the source of his communication. She warned him not to do anything stupid, but he promised to get her out. That promise was sincere, regardless of circumstance. Lenne's spirit settled within the sphere and though she could see nothing of him, she took comfort in hearing his voice that played within. Sad and lonely, she chose to stay right here with her memories of him, ... forever.

))((

Bahamut, in his aeon form, obediently followed Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon across the war-torn battlefield. The boy within the dragon felt his heart plummet at the sight of all the pyreflies flying toward Bevelle behind Yevon's aeon, but many of them still lingered close to the ground. Two entire armies had been destroyed here. This land would forever be scarred with their suffering.

Half-way across the battlefield, Yunalesca came to a stop.

Zaon removed his helm and looked at his wife with concern. "Something troubles you."

"I can't stand it anymore," she whispered to her husband. "Thousands of souls crying out - too many to cleanse completely. Can't you feel it? I must do something for the ones who wish to rest." Absorbing the deep sadness of the lost and lingering souls, she faced her aeon. "Bahamut, if you remain present for the sending, you will be dismissed, and I may not have the energy to call you back when I am done here. Fly ahead of us to Bevelle and wait for us there."

The aeon leaped into the air and hovered for a moment as his summoner began her sending dance before flying onward without her. He gave this consideration because it meant her sending spell could dismiss him, but not actually send him to the Farplane. It was probably because his soul was sealed within the mountain cavern. Something stronger than a sending spell would be needed to crack the magic of that seal, or his aeon could, theoretically, live forever. That felt more disturbing than assuring for some reason.

On his way into Bevelle, Bahamut saw a swarm of pyreflies racing toward the battlefield - more souls trying to reach the Farplane portal that Yunalesca was opening. But as he passed the cliffs and continued his flight, he inwardly gasped. Yevon's aeon was nowhere in sight, but it had already razed large portions of the city to the ground. Other sections of the city had disappeared beneath the floods. Bevelle looked almost like Zanarkand now. The temple was left standing, and survivors were already fleeing there for healing and protection, but the city order was in chaos. So, the temple had shut its doors. How could they turn their backs on people in need like that? The black dragon wanted to knock down the doors to let the people in, but he had not been given that command. Instead, he flew to the high bridge and perched where he could watch the road far below, compelled to obediently await his summoner. "_Lady Yunalesca, ... hurry_!"

))((

Shuyin's soul was among those fleeing from Bevelle. He recognized the black dragon that once guarded the ronso village and saw Yunalesca creating a path to the spirit plane below, but he refused to go - not yet, not without Lenne. With so many souls clustering near the portal, it was fairly easy for one stubborn soul to skirt the outer circumference of the portal. Shuyin's fortified spirit resisted the distant pull of the Farplane and flew toward the mountain pass. If both Yunalesca and the guardian dragon were gone, something had happened to the refugees.

))((

When Yunalesca had done as much as she could, she closed the portal and dropped to her knees in exhaustion. Zaon helped her to stand once more and escorted her the rest of the way across the wreckage on the battlefield to the main road leading into Bevelle. Yunalesca and Zaon were both stunned at the extent of catastrophe they met when they arrived in the city. Both were surprised at how the sight evoked a familiar, overwhelming sense of loss, even though this place was responsible for what happened to them. But, after a few moments, Yunalesca tightened her grip on the terms of surrender and moved on.

After pushing their way through the flooded and fallen debris into the growing crowd of frightened and injured people, Yunalesca and Zaon met no resistance approaching the temple. Bahamut soared down from the spire to join them, but no armed squads ran forward to banish him. And though the warrior monks attempting to keep the crowd under control aimed guns at her, none dared to actually fire upon the daughter of Zanarkand's high summoner without the command to do so.

Bahamut hit the doors with a fist, forcing them open for the small summoner and her guardian, then his hulking form filled the large doorway behind them as they entered. Folding his arms at his chest, he stood his full height on his two hind legs and gave threatening glares to the unprepared guards and priests who were shocked to see Yunalesca standing among them.

"I wish to see Maester Renuta." Her very presence had brought the great hall to a grinding halt.

"Maester Renuta is busy with emergency matters," one of the summoners informed her, with reservation.

"I will see him _now_!" she demanded, her sharp voice echoing through the chambers. "Or he will have even _more_ emergency matters to handle!"

There was a flurry of voices and whispers, and someone ran to the back of the temple to call the maester forward. A few minutes later, Maester Renuta came through the anxious gathering of officials and guards. His robes rustled with his unhurried stride, and his lips pressed tightly together in defiance of her urgent command. "You wished to see me, Lady Yunalesca?" he greeted her as if nothing were amiss. "As you can see my hands are quite full with disaster relief at the moment, so I would request that you keep this visit short and to the point."

"The disaster is out there, not in here. Perhaps it would help if you opened your doors." Her eyes narrowed on the man, studying his pale, hawkish features as if he were a bloated corpse she wished she could send. Yunalesca decided to speak loudly for all present to hear, not allowing him the chance to hide beneath excuses. "Zanarkand was destroyed in an unprovoked attack by Bevelle's warships. I have since learned that our own temple was responsible, so I assume this stems from our difference of opinion on the matter of summoning aeons. You accuse us of human sacrifice to appease the Founders, yet you have murdered countless innocents for them. Our Fayth serve proudly knowing they are doing all they can to protect the living. Your victims will know only bitter despair, and it will eat away at them causing them to seek revenge. What has happened here today is the result of your sins against Lord Yevon and the people of Zanarkand! That creature out there is the voice of every soul you have wronged. It is your punishment - your sin incarnate! You helped create that monster!" She gave that a moment to sink in.

"Traitors! All of you! I reclaim this temple in the name of Yevon - the man who taught you _ingrates _everything you know about the summoning arts! How dare you betray him like this!" Yunalesca stepped closer to Renuta until she could see him sweat; then she shoved the document her father drafted into the maester's chest. Though she lowered her volume, her tone remained commanding and frigid. "I am the only one who can create another aeon of equal strength to stop the destruction of this one, but I will not do so until my father's terms of surrender have been met. No restrictions on magic. No more machina. And _no_ ... _more_ ... _Founders_. Spira belongs to those who live here now, not those who created her long ago and far away."

Yunalesca saw Renuta look at his warrior monks. She knew one command could have her arrested and either imprisoned or executed. She was sure the Founders would have preferred to capture her father, but she knew they would consider her a worthy capture as well. But she could tell Renuta was also weighing the truth of her words. Arresting their only defense against the monstrosity that had destroyed the city wouldn't be prudent.

"Yevon has gone too far this time." He took the document, but spoke in low anger. "That swollen, unnatural beast was called from beyond the grave to destroy the living. This destruction is Yevon's doing – not ours."

"This war was your doing. You sent most of those men and women to their graves, and the rest died to make sure this never happens again. Bevelle will surrender to my father's terms, or Sin will avenge Zanarkand again ... and again ... _and again_," she ended her threat with a whisper.

))((

As Shuyin's spirit fled toward Mt. Gagazet, he remembered his ronso friend and wondered if he had escaped Bevelle's dungeons, or if he, too, had been captured and executed. He decided to stop at the ronso village, which seemed to be in mourning. Passing between the furs covering Zen's door, he saw that his friend was alive and well, but looked angry and sad. "_Zen ..." _Though he heard his own thoughts, he had no tongue to speak them. So, he knew the ronso could not hear him.

_Form …_ Shuyin tried reaching toward his friend, and for the first time since awakening to his new consciousness, he was able to see his own ghostly hand.

The ronso looked up from his fire pit at the strange appearance of pyreflies hovering near him. Pyreflies meant only two things - magic and fiends. Zen snatched his lance. "Show yourself!"

_"Zen, wait! It's me!"_

The ronso watched as the pyreflies attempted to coalesce into a glowing outline, but it was not the usual shape of a fiend. As the fogginess of that shape became more distinct, he saw that it was still human. "Shuyin?"

_Voice …_ "Please ..." Shuyin could hear himself speak once more. "Please, tell me you've seen Lenne."

The ronso clearly wasn't sure what to do. Ghosts usually turned into fiends, but this was the ghost of his friend. He slowly shook his head. "Lenne died with Shuyin. Little brother now Fayth." He hung his head in shame and allowed a rare tear to slip from his cat-like eyes down his furry, blue cheek. "Zen could not protect friends. Not even smallest one."

"What?" Shuyin's face twisted with anger. "Bahamut's not a Fayth!"

"Lord Yevon and Lady Yunalesca turned Zanarkand tribe into Fayth. Elder Kinan say Fayth Scar makes Gagazet sacred mountain now. New aeon came from Zanarkand to destroy Bevelle army."

"Zanarkand … Fayth?" As he started to fade, Shuyin considered what Lenne had told him about the creation of a Fayth, and the same morbid fear that crept over him concerning Lenne, now returned to him concerning her brother.

))((

Maester Renuta refused to accept the terms of surrender, but a majority within the temple disagreed with him. After a brief scuffle with Bahamut, Renuta and his supporters were taken to the dungeons, while Yunalesca set about sending summoners outside to help the victims of her father's wrath and rounded up rosters of anyone left that would support Yevon's uncensored teachings once more.

When Yunalesca had the temple back under control enough to dismiss her aeon, Bahamut rose once more from his tomb in the cavern in the mountain. It would probably be awhile before the ronso could move his body into the temple, so the ghostly boy stood and wandered out onto the pass near the Fayth Scar overlooking the Zanarkand ruins. He still felt responsible for these people he had been told to protect. But what good was that now? He faced the night over the ocean. Sin was swimming in the ocean near the city, looking as if it were trying to seek solace among the remains. Except for the pyreflies, Zanarkand was dark, cold, and dead. After a few minutes, like a predator lurking in the shadows to avoid being seen, the aeon dove out of sight beneath the surface to rest.

A sound behind him drew Bahamut's attention. A pair of Bevelle scouts with lanterns were coming down the dark mountain pass toward him. They didn't see him, and walked right through him, but they immediately spotted the bodies trapped in magical seals, embedded into the mountain wall.

"What in the name of everything unholy is that?" one asked the other, his fear and displeasure at the grotesque sight written on his face. "That's not our army is it?"

"My guess is it's the last of Zanarkand's survivors. And it's literally oozing with magic, so it looks like the high summoner himself did this to them." The other guard shook his head, uneasy with the discovery. "Destroyed his own city just to take a shot at us. Typical of Yu Yevon's arrogance."

In a rare fit of anger, Bahamut flew at them with his fists. "You're the ones that destroyed our city! You did it! All of you!" However, he stumbled and passed right through them, unable to make physical contact.

"It's pointless to fight them. They can't see or hear you," a feminine voice told him.

But the fact that someone had spoken to him meant _someone_ could see and hear him. Bahamut turned to see a young woman sitting on a rock a short distance down the path toward the ruins. He wondered why he had not noticed her before, but the scouts didn't seem to see her, either.

The scouts used a memory sphere to record their discovery of the wall, then passed by the twisted bodies and headed toward Zanarkand to record it, too. "This place gives me the creeps. There's nothing left of the army, and that's all we can say about it. There's not a spare part left anywhere."

Bahamut waited until their voices trailed away further down the path toward the ruins before he drew near to the spirit of the young woman to see her better. "Kaila?" He had met her only a couple of times while Lenne was dating Koji, so he was very surprised to see her now. "Are you …?"

"Dead? Apparently so. I was among the survivors in the caverns – the survivors turned into Zanarkand's Fayth."

"I didn't see you in the caverns. I was in there, too, … until I was turned into a Fayth to guard them." Bahamut saddened. "I tried to stop him. I tried to wake everyone up, but no one heard me."

"Only a summoner can break through the spell that surrounds a Fayth." Kaila turned her chin to face the young boy. "You should know that. You've studied summoning more than the rest of us."

Yes, he knew the basic conditions for praying to a Fayth. "It's just hard to remember I'm ..."

"I know," she sympathetically agreed. Kaila turned her gaze back toward the city.

"What are you doing out here?"

"The others are sleeping, … dreaming. But I wanted to see the real ruins again. I … have a hard time believing everything's gone."

"With Zanarkand gone, there won't be many summoners to call on us."

Kaila sighed. "I don't think Lord Yevon meant for anyone else to summon us. He summoned us to transform himself within our seal. And now he summons us to dream."

"Lady Yunalesca summons me as an aeon. She wants to take me to Bevelle." Bahamut sat down beside her on the rock and looked longingly toward the ruins. He couldn't believe how dismal the place looked now, in spite of the sparkling magic in the fog that surrounded the city. "It looks like it's been dead for a thousand years already."

"Ah, but that's because you're looking at it through reality. Close your eyes and remember."

Bahamut closed his eyes and saw Zanarkand as it was once more. When he opened them again, that's exactly how it appeared to be. It was as if he had brought the entire city back to life just by wishing it.

Kaila smiled at his astonished expression. "It's beautiful, isn't it? I'm not sure how it works, but I think it comforts Lord Yevon to know Zanarkand is still alive in some way through us. Now it really is the 'City That Never Sleeps'."

The boy was awed by how real it looked. "The sleep spell cast on the Fayth must work like the water of Lake Macalania. Memories preserved in particles of magic become an illusion."

"I guess that would explain the gaps. I went through it before coming here and noticed a few things that seemed … off."

"You went in there?"

"It only took a few minutes. It's not like I have to walk or wait on the transport schedule anymore. The illusion itself is very convincing because of the abundance of magic here. But not everyone who lived in Zanarkand died as a Fayth. Those who died by normal means and crossed over to the Farplane, or remain unsent, ... we don't have their memories to fill in the gaps. So, there are places where you can tell it's just a stage prop with nothing real behind it, … where the players are just actors with a pre-written script. Somehow Yevon's spell unifies it all, though – like one big database."

"What if we don't want to share our memories like that?"

"Well, you were created for a different purpose, so I don't know how it is for you. But I don't think the rest of us have a choice. When he summons us, we must sleep and dream of our memories. Then he uses our dreams to reconstruct Zanarkand. I've been able to alter some of my bad memories in my dreams, but that's really weird because changing the past alters the results in Zanarkand."

"Does it _really_ change the past?"

Kaila smiled. "No. Nothing we do in our dreams affects reality. It is, after all, just a dream. It's really cool, though. Would you like to see it?"

Bahamut wasn't sure he wanted to. The memories of his lost loved ones were still too fresh in mind. If he were to see them walking down recreated streets, it would hurt too much. He closed his eyes and let the vision leave his imagination. When he opened them, he could see the desolation of the real Zanarkand once more. He preferred it that way for some reason. Perhaps she did, too, or she wouldn't be here.

Kaila's eyes suddenly widened with surprise as she looked past his shoulder toward the mountain pass. "Oh my gosh. Is that … Shuyin?" She hopped down from her rock.

Bahamut turned at the name and saw the familiar figure coming down the path toward them. "Shuyin!" Grinning, he jumped down and ran to meet him. To his surprise, the guardian was tangible enough for the boy to grab his hand. Then he remembered from his magic lessons how pyreflies stick to one another to create magic in the first place. "Are you a Fayth, too?"

"No," he growled, glancing down at him, and then to Kaila, as he strode right past her to see the mural of twisted bodies fused into the mountain wall by streams of magic. Upon seeing it, however, he shook his head in disbelief and sighed with sad disgust. "So, … it's true. Zen told me everyone had been turned into Fayth."

Kaila drew near, but resisted the urge to give him a hug. Something about him seemed … different. "It was the only way to save what was left of Zanarkand."

"Shuyin, my aeon form - it's a dragon - a really, really big black dragon!" The boy smiled with pride.

Shuyin showed no joy at Bahamut's news. "How could you let them do this to you? How could you blindly do whatever they said without questioning anything?" he snapped at them.

Bahamut released the blitzball player's hand and stepped back at the scolding. The guardian was apparently still just as angry as when he last saw him alive, going to Bevelle to free Lenne. The fact that he was here like this could only mean the mission had not been successful. He wanted to ask what had happened to his sister, but now he was afraid of the answer. "I wanted to help, ... just like you wanted to help Lenne."

The comparison struck a painful chord in the blitzball player. Turning around and away from the boy, he stared at the cold, lifeless bodies within the gruesome collage. "Then we both failed."

Bahamut shared Shuyin's sadness. "We can help more people this way, ... when we're summoned."

Kaila was wary, though. "Shuyin, if you're not a Fayth, then ..."

"Then what?" His gaze hardened on her, knowing what she was thinking. _Unsent …_ No one dared to say it because he clearly didn't want to talk about his own dark existence, clinging to life beyond death by sheer rebellion. "At least I'm not enslaved to a summoning spell. I knew that bastard was leaving the city wide-open by sending us out there to die, but I never guessed he'd be the one to strike the killing blow. How could he do this to his own people? I knew he couldn't be trusted! _This_ is why I asked Lenne to stay away from Bevelle. And now, I can't … I can't ..." Despair replaced the anger. Fingers grasped hair as he turned away, unable to face them or the wall anymore.

"You can't find her?" Kaila guessed, wondering if he was okay. He seemed to be in pain.

He lifted his chin to stare at the ghostly ruins. "I can't even feel her," he spoke, somewhat absent. "Some guardian I turned out to be ..."

"Maybe Lenne went to the Farplane," she softly suggested.

Shuyin froze, then faced her with offense. "Is that some kind of sick joke? I'm not going to the Farplane," he bitterly refused. "I won't rest until I find her, _and_ the people who did this to her - to us - _all _of us!" he vowed. Then, he turned and jogged down the path toward Zanarkand once more.

"Shu?" Kaila started to follow, but the boy at her side caught her hand to stop her. "What's happened to him?"

"I don't know, but he's got twice the amount of pyreflies we do." Bahamut felt a tremendous sense of loss, too. Shuyin had returned to them, but he wasn't their sunny, fun-loving Shuyin anymore. How had his heart become tainted with such dark emotions? Bahamut suspected it wasn't just the fact that Shuyin was unsent. There was an aura about his friend now that truly frightened him.

))((

Shuyin headed down the road into Zanarkand and stared angrily at the faded ruins. What was the point of trying to protect anyone or anything if this was all that was going to come of it in the end? She had believed in him, and he had given his best, … but his best wasn't good enough. It wasn't fair, but life never promised to be fair, did it? If he couldn't protect her from harm as he promised, he at least wanted to be with her. The thought of being without her, forever … "Lenne?" he called out as he jogged into the empty city. Nothing else mattered anymore - nothing except her. He couldn't face forever without her. "Lenne!"

The door to the temple was shut. He started to open it by hitting it with force, but his hands passed through the material form. Drawing an uneasy breath, he walked through the heavy material barring his entrance and down the darkened great hall beyond it, absorbing more pyreflies as he went. "Lenne!" he cried out once more through angry tears. "Please come back to me! I'll put things right, I swear! I'll make them pay for what they did to us! I'll make them all pay!" He thrust a tapestry drape that was blocking his path out of his way, and this time, it moved as if a stiff breeze had blown through the ruins.

The two scouts from Bevelle looked up as Shuyin entered the second chamber. They had heard him shouting, and were prepared to take on an angry Zanarkand refugee. But when he came into view and they saw how transparent his body was, they immediately raised their guns. "Fiend!"

Shuyin barely had time to process the threat when their bullets tore through his chest. He closed his eyes expecting to feel the familiar pain of his last death, but this time he felt nothing. A few pyreflies fluttered away, nothing more. He looked down at himself, stunned for a moment, but then lifted his gaze to the men who had tried to kill him. As his scowl darkened on them, both gunmen realized the difference between a fiend and a ghost is that material weapons can't kill spirits that haven't fully materialized yet.

The blitzball player charged the man that had called him a fiend. Instead of being able to grab onto him, however, he found himself ... inside of him. The man cried out in protest and grasped his head in desperation to pull free, but Shuyin hung on tenaciously. Using his borrowed hands, he raised the gun toward his partner and fired it. The other scout stared in shock at the friend who had shot him, but then fell dead at Shuyin's feet.

Shuyin felt no remorse whatsoever. This man had tried to kill him, and now he was one less Bevelle guard to deal with. He looked down at his hands - not his own anymore, but those of a stranger. He didn't know how he gained that kind of possessive magic, but he realized what he was capable of doing with it.

))((

A few days later, a tall, broad-shouldered man with lightly tanned skin, light brown eyes, and auburn hair entered the Bevelle temple and went straight to Maester Renuta's office door. "My name is Tsuran. I've returned from Zanarkand, and I'm ready to debrief on the army's disappearance. Maester Renuta should be expecting me."

"Oh, you must have left before Lady Yunalesca arrested him," the summoner outside of the office door told him. "He's awaiting execution for treason. You should report to Lady Yunalesca if you have any Zanarkand information. She has temporarily taken over all temple operations to appoint an entirely new, ordained staff to get us back on track with the teachings of Yevon." The summoner looked worried. "She says it's the only way to prevent that ... that ... _thing_ ... from coming back."

Yunalesca was not important to Shuyin right now, but her day would come. "I have one more question," he said, via Tsuran. "Can you tell me where to find some kind of roster for the names of the guards responsible for the execution of the summoner and blitzplayer from Zanarkand - the ones shot near Vegnagun?"

"Well, ... we didn't really have a roster for that execution because it happened spontaneously after they tried to escape. However, the report on file in the maester's office probably has a list of witnesses. Did they actually do something to Vegnagun?"

"Not yet." Tsuran offered a curt smile of gratitude. "I'll need that report to discuss their executions with Lady Yunalesca. She won't be happy to hear that one of her summoners was gunned down in cold blood by her own monks." When the summoner stepped aside with uncertainty, Tsuran went into the maester's office and scrounged around in the files until he found what he was looking for. Then, he let himself out of the office and addressed the summoner one more time. "Does your speaker system work?"

"Yes. The attack downed most of the cities utilities, but we're on back-up generators here. Most of our summoners are out taking care of the wounded within the city to keep them from coming into the temple since our situation is rather ... unorganized ... at the moment while Lady Yunalesca hunts down the rest of the traitors."

"Could you give these people a call for me, please? Tell them to come to the lower level of the temple so we can further investigate this execution. Thank you." Tsuran handed him the list of names, tipped his hat, and walked away with confidence. He didn't even wait to hear the names being read over the loud speaker before returning to the great hall and heading for the lift.

This time, Shuyin browsed the thoughts of his host body to find out how to operate the thing, so he knew which switch would make it go in the direction that he needed. This time, he knew his way through the maze of tunnels leading underground to the jails, and he knew exactly how to check a sphere monitoring station to locate and lower the prisoner he needed to see. When he found the maester's cage, he approached with the calm persona of the scout that he had possessed. "My report on Zanarkand is ready, Maester Renuta. Would you like to hear it?"

"Report? Do you think I want to hear about a report when I'm being confined in here?" The maester felt rather claustrophobic about his urgent predicament. His comb-over was completely in disarray, and his round face was flushed with sweat and frustration.

"Not a lot of fun being strung up like that, is it, sir?" Tsuran answered with a thin smile.

Renuta didn't know what to think of the scout's disrespectful comment. "Don't take that tone with me. I'm still your superior. Where's Paomar? Didn't I assign him to this mission with you?"

"He's dead, sir. Everyone's dead. The Bevelle army has vanished without a trace. Zanarkand is in ruins and has been completely drained of all life - literally. The remaining citizens gave up their souls to become Fayth, so that Yevon could use them to create the aeon that attacked this city."

Renuta was thoughtful for a moment, but then he leaned close to the bars of his cage and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I can make it worth your while, if you help me get out of here. I have connections with the ambassador of the Founders' headquarters up on the cliffs of Mushroom Rock Road. Just escort me there, and they'll work with you on a settlement. Eh?"

Tsuran's brows drew together. "What kind of connections?"

"The ambassador of the Founders asked me to take up this position in the first place, so that we could fill the temple with ... friendly faces." He smiled, knowing that this scout would probably understand what he meant.

"Spies," Tsuran guessed.

"Well, ... if you wish to call it that. We could rid Spira of Yu Yevon by hiding under his own wing, and it worked beautifully until that Coeurl Yunalesca showed up with her pet monster!" he hissed. "Ambassador Guregohe needs to be told that Bevelle was struck, and _she's_ taken over."

"Sounds like this plan's been in progress for a while."

"Long enough." He chuckled nervously.

"Which one of you is responsible for the orders to attack Zanarkand?"

"Oh, definitely Guregohe. I only employed Bevelle's defense forces to the task. Yevon had gone into the Via Infinito and tried to convince the spirit of the ship herself to flee the Founders. They cannot afford to lose control of this ship! So, ... they decided they were done attempting to negotiate with the necromancers."

"A whole city of necromancers?" Tsuran's brows rose at that comment. "What about that blitzball player that was killed down here? Was he a necromancer?"

"He was trying to steal Vegnagun! That machina is too unstable to be tampered with," the maester frowned.

"He was trying to help his girl escape." Tsuran came forward to the bars and rested his light brown eyes on the man in the cage. "And she had done nothing to deserve imprisonment or death."

"She was Yevon's chosen to be placed as an aeon in this temple," he confessed with distaste. "We didn't want her kind sitting under our noses. Yevon's aeons are nothing but demonic spies and -"

Tsuran's fist reached through the bars and snatched the maester by his robes to jerk his face harshly between the bars. "That summoner was not a demon or a spy, you paranoid excuse for a priest," he spoke in a chilling tone with a cold look in his eye.

The maester began to sweat profusely. "She was trying to steal Vegnagun with him!"

"She was trying to talk me out of it! And you had her shot anyway!" Shuyin yelled over his host body's voice.

The maester's eyes widened with fear and his fat jowls trembled as a single pyrefly floated away from Tsuran's wrist. He was in the grip of an unsent. "It's _you_?"

Tsuran smiled. "Yeah. It's me." He raised his rifle and pointed the nose of the barrel directly at the maester without even bothering to take aim. He fired the weapon, short range, then turned around and looked at the spheres that probably recorded the whole thing before walking away without a care in the world about getting arrested.

Back toward the lift, Tsuran heard the alarms go off. Someone had indeed been watching the monitors, and when he reached the circuit pathways, members of the firing squad showed up to intercept him.

"Stop! You're under arrest!"

Tsuran greeted them with bullets from his borrowed weapon and pushed them over the edge down the long drop below. A few bullets had hit him, but it was not enough to make Shuyin let go. He rode the lift back to the top and headed toward the exit.

"There! He's the one!" the summoner he had spoken to earlier pointed him out.

Tsuran looked over his shoulder to find he was being rushed by four warrior monks. He ran in a mild effort to escape, but he knew it was futile. Tsuran was shot in the back and stumbled forward, finally unable to sustain life any longer. Shuyin's spirit rose from his host's body and marched toward his pursuers.

All four warrior monks stopped their chase and stared at the glowing figure full of pyreflies heading straight for them. "Wh-what is that?" one of them asked. "Is it a fiend?"

They raised their guns to fire at his sparse composition, but Shuyin had already selected his next host. The warrior monk that he possessed fought to remain in control of himself for a few minutes, but then obediently ran. The others were puzzled and reluctant to shoot their own comrade to try to stop him from running. Eventually, they did hit his leg and bring him down. Determined, Shuyin took over a third and fourth host, until the same thing happened again. There had been plenty of spectators to the strange homicidal behavior among the warrior monks, but eventually no one was left to stop the final host from escaping.


	25. Chapter 25: Spirit of Despair

Chapter 25: Spirit of Despair

Shuyin ran from Bevelle most of the way to Mushroom Rock Road, stopping to rest only after the sun set too low for him to see well. He was frustrated that this body he possessed was not as physically capable of the speed or endurance he was used to, and though he felt no hunger himself, he could tell his host was in need of food and water. On top of that, he was nearsighted. It made him wonder how in the world he managed to aim a gun.

On his second day of travel, he stopped on the outskirts of Moonflow, the city built on high-rise bridges over a river of the same name. Hot and exhausted, he knelt by the embankment to quench his thirst and splash some cold water on his face. In the ripples, he was stunned to see his reflection for the first time since his death. It was strange to see someone else looking back at him - especially a face so opposite from his own.

His new host was a man of medium stature, medium skin tone, and medium-length mouse-brown hair that he wore tied back while on duty. His eyes were small and dark like his hair. He touched his cheeks and felt a light beard scruff that had been neglected for a couple of days. Then, he turned away from his reflection and began browsing the surface thoughts of his host's mind to find out more. His name was Sanpul, and he was among those who had their sights on Zanarkand's destruction. He had sided with the Founders during the temple's infiltration, but a previous injury kept him from joining the battle in the grasslands. Shuyin almost immediately hated him, but then decided it was justice to use him for this purpose.

When Shuyin finally reached the headquarters of the Founders on Mushroom Rock Road, he used Sanpul's voice to request an audience with Ambassador Guregohe. He was the man officially in charge of mediation between their former home world, Earth, and the governing bodies in each of the cities and towns on the colony space ship. Shuyin could have stopped in at the Founders' representative's office while he was in Bevelle, but with the chaos during his escape, he decided it was best to tackle those on his black-ball list in order of offense. The warrior monks who had hunted them down and pulled the triggers were now dead somewhere beneath the temple. Maester Renuta was now rotting in his cage. Ambassador Guregohe who ordered the attack on Zanarkand was next. Perhaps he would even hunt down the peon who dared to capture Lenne, or the Bevelle warriors who flew the airships over the stadium. Eventually, he would even take on Lady Yunalesca and Lord Yevon, for what they did to Bahamut and Kaila and everyone else, … but first he would have to figure out how to defeat them without the risk of being sent. Perhaps Vegnagun could help with that. He didn't care what else he destroyed now as long as those who made them suffer also suffered. In the lobby, Sanpul sat down and closed his eyes to rest while Shuyin plotted his course of revenge.

When he was finally invited into the ambassador's office, Shuyin stared hard at the man responsible for planting the seed that blossomed into everyone else's doom. Guregohe had short white hair, a gray mustache, and gray eyes. Instead of wearing robes, like most officials holding important offices in Spira's politics, he wore a military-style uniform more akin to the various soldier factions he commanded – uniforms like those of the Bevelle warriors who claimed victory after their machina won the battle for them. If there was such a thing as a Founders' Empire here on Spira, the ambassador served as the behind-the-scenes emperor. He was the one who made sure each of the cities governing assemblies behaved and reported Spira's progress and news back to Earth. Guregohe shook hands with Sanpul. "My junior staff counsel says you claim to have urgent news concerning your first-hand surveillance of the Zanarkand ruins."

"The city has been completely destroyed," Sanpul reported. He didn't see anything of the city's destruction to be able to make that claim, but he was not in control of his own body, and there was nothing he could do to counter the strong magic that had taken over his mind. "The only known survivors are Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon."

"Excellent!" The ambassador laughed in a congratulatory manner. "That will teach the rest of Spira not to be snide about the Founders' mandates. Have a seat. What was your name again?" Guregohe took his seat behind his desk and offered his guest the chair facing him on the other side.

"Sanpul." Still tired from his run, the warrior monk accepted the seat.

"So, tell me all about the details. What did you see in Zanarkand?"

Sanpul's brows rose in indecision. "Do you want details about how Yu Yevon turned himself into an aeon big enough to wipe out all of Bevelle's army and half of their city, too? Or do you mean the details that involve pulling children out of the water from the bottom of a collapsed stadium, … only to discover they've drowned in your arms because their lungs were too small and fragile for the swim to the surface?"

The ambassador's smile fell at the barbed tone of the unusual response. "You were present during the attack?"

"I was enjoying the blitzball tournament, along with everyone else."

Guregohe sighed apologetically. "I'm sorry to hear you got caught in the cross-fire, but I hope you understand why Bevelle couldn't warn its citizens to stay home. Word might have reached Zanarkand, alerting them in time to fight back."

"Oh, absolutely. Best to stab them in back while they're playing games, right? It's called strategy. That's why you won."

The ambassador didn't know whether to be offended or amused at the messenger's bluntness.

"Winning is all that matters in championships and war," Sanpul added.

Guregohe decided to ignore the messenger's odd tone and comments for the sake of the recent alliance with Bevelle. Instead, he leaned forward with interest. "Tell me more about this aeon. Yu Yevon turned himself into one of those demons and attacked the army _and_ the city? I wondered why communications with Bevelle had suddenly stopped. How bad is it?"

"The city itself is a disaster, but Lady Yunalesca has control of the temple once more. She delivered Yevon's terms of surrender to Maester Renuta, and he refused to cooperate, so he was ... executed." Sanpul hid a secret smile to himself. "She's hunting down the other spies, though, so I have no doubt she'll be coming here soon. She'll try to get rid of the Founders next. That is among Yevon's terms of surrender." His voice was cool and even. His face showed no emotion as he paused and shifted forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees. "Tell me something, sir. If someone threatened to destroy Spira the same way Zanarkand was destroyed, would that be treason?"

Guregohe frowned at the gravity of what was happening in Bevelle and tried to read the other man's motive in asking such a thing. "Treason is a very serious accusation."

"Was Zanarkand guilty of treason?"

"Yevon declared Zanarkand an independent city. He tried to take control of the ship. And now you say his daughter demands that the Founders leave. Is that their next goal - destroy Spira?"

"No. I thought it was yours."

"Well. That _would_ be treason, wouldn't it." The ambassador began to get the distinct feeling that he was being backed into a corner by this messenger for some reason. "Why would I want to destroy Spira?"

"For the same reason you attacked Zanarkand - to destroy all the summoners and aeons, ... to cleanse the ship of all alien magic and life. Otherwise, you could have just arrested Yevon and tried him for treason, … right?"

"Zanarkand needed cleansing because Yevon was a dangerous man spreading dangerous ideas. His necromancy and black magic infected the city like a virus – even children were practicing it. And it wasn't enough to infect one of the biggest cities on Spira. His appetite for power was growing beyond control. He set up temples for training summoners in Bevelle, Besaid City, and Kilika Port. Now he's even got temples in remote places like Macalania and Baaj."

"Don't those places need help sending their dead?" Sanpul's expression was calm but brooding, belying the storm beneath the surface.

"We don't need magic to deal with the dead. Magic is what keeps them here when they aren't wanted," Guregohe tapped his desk with a stiff forefinger to emphasize his point. "Yevon used magic to summon an army of demons, and according to his own temple in Bevelle, those things were created from living, human sacrifices. Can you believe it? Allowing that sort of thing to continue unchecked is criminal. And this ship has enough problems with dead things walking around because of that blasted plane of magic at its core. We don't need more magic, and we cannot sit idle while he kills members of his cult to create those undead monstrosities to use on whoever disagrees with his necromantic practices."

Guregohe shook his head with disgust. "The man was acting as if he was a god. People were beginning to believe he's a god. If Spira is to have gods, it will be the gods of the people who created her – not some egocentric lunatic who's learned alien tricks for manipulating life and death. This ship was meant to be a haven for the good people of Earth – a model for surviving somewhere else in the universe. If we give ourselves over to alien influences we will find ourselves right back under their thumbs again. Spira was meant to preserve humanity's history and environment, but allowing aliens on board perverted it. Ever since alien magic was introduced to the ship it has been one headache after another trying to keep the colony sustainable."

"History says aliens saved us from certain death, and science attests to the fact that the ship is now self-sustaining."

The ambassador frowned. "But now the dead walk the land and plague the living. To allow Yevon's cult free access to the Farplane would be suicide for the rest of us. And he has the audacity to command us to return to Earth when he's contributing to this problem by summoning the dead? Well, I'm not from Earth. I was born and raised on this ship, and my ancestors helped build it. I'm not going to let someone like him turn this colony into a ghost ship. This is my home, and I'm not budging."

"The people of Zanarkand would have said the same thing, if anyone had bothered to ask." Sanpul calmly looked up from studying a ring he was unused to seeing on his finger - a golden wedding band. He wondered if his wife had survived Yevon's attack, or if she was just another casualty in this war … like Lenne. "My girlfriend was one of those summoners that you ordered Bevelle to destroy."

Tension settled heavily between the two men as the ambassador began to see the personal slant taking shape in this odd conversation.

There was a knock at the door, and one of the junior aides poked his head into the room. "Sorry to disturb you, sir, but an urgent message just came from Bevelle."

"I'll just be a minute," Guregohe told the disturbing messenger, glad for the excuse to leave his company as he stepped outside the room and closed the door to speak privately.

Shuyin looked at the wedding ring again and considered searching Sanpul's mind to see if he had kids, but decided against it. Instead, he opened his memories of all the children he had signed autographs for on paper scraps, programs, and blitzballs – all those children including Bahamut. Sanpul groaned in discontent and tried again to pull free from the spirit within as he was forced to acknowledge their smiling faces.

))((

"What is it?" Guregohe asked his aide.

"We finally got a communication from Bevelle. They were attacked several days ago by a giant aeon that hit them with magical quakes, tidal waves, and typhoon-strength winds. The city is operating on emergency resources right now. It sounds pretty bad, but … there's something else. One of our agents said Renuta sent two scouts to Zanarkand, and only one returned. Supposedly he went insane and killed Maester Renuta and about a dozen other warrior monks in the temple. Our agent said that when the scout was killed to prevent his escape, something even weirder happened."

Guregohe put his personal definition of _weirder_ on hold. "Go on."

"Witnesses said something came out of him."

"Pyreflies? His spirit? A fiend?" he asked with suspicion.

"They said it looked like the magic that surround fiends, but it wasn't a fiend. And they don't think it was the scout's spirit because it didn't act like him. They said it went into one of the other warrior monks and possessed him, but when they tried to stop it, it kept escaping and taking new bodies. Witnesses say the last monk it possessed got away." He glanced to the closed office door. "I though it sounded suspicious in light of the fact that a warrior monk from Bevelle showed up here to deliver a report on Zanarkand."

"Yes, very suspicious, … thank you." Guregohe recalled Sanpul's strange comments about saving drowning children and losing his girlfriend. "If this man is possessed by an unsent spirit, we need to prevent it from taking any more bodies before we attempt to confront it."

"Well, summoners are the experts when dealing with unsent spirits."

"Out of the question - especially now that Yunalesca has reclaimed the temple in Bevelle. This is a fine example of the very thing we're trying to prevent by getting rid of the magic these undead things feed on."

"Forgive me for being contrary, sir, but I really think this case needs a summoner. Since it can hide inside people and control them, you can't take a sword to it without killing the host. That is, … if the host is still alive. A summoner might be able to defeat the dead without losing the living in the process. My … cousin … happens to be a summoner at the Djose temple, sir. It's a disgrace to the entire family, I know, but he always was a bit of an … odd sort," the junior aide muttered. "Still, I think he would know more about this sort of thing than us, and we can trust him to keep mum about it. And Djose is just down the road, closer than Bevelle."

The ambassador tapped his chin with consideration, then sighed in frustration. "Very well. Fetch your cousin from Djose, but make sure he agrees to tell no one. Be quick about it, too. I don't know how much longer I can detain him. We should probably try to sedate him. I want something waiting for him out here in case he tries to leave."

"Yes, sir." The junior aide hurried away to set his tasks in motion as quickly as possible.

Guregohe situated his uniform, drew a breath, and entered his office once more. It was an entirely different matter knowing he was speaking to the dead. "Sorry about that interruption. Now, where were we?" He sat back down at his desk.

"My girlfriend died because of you," Sanpul flatly stated with a cold glare.

If the ambassador had any doubts about this being the same warrior monk in the report, they were erased now. "It is unfortunate that all of Zanarkand needed to be cleansed, but we cannot allow necromancers and black magic users to populate Spira and take control of it."

"Lenne used white magic to heal people. She prevented wandering souls from festering into fiends by sending them." Sanpul rose from his chair. "You complain about Yevon playing god, but when you destroyed Zanarkand, you played god, too. You didn't like how the creation turned out, so you thought you could flood it and start over. But Zanarkand didn't deserve _your_ judgment because of _your_ fear and hatred of magic. Magic is what keeps this ship alive. If you attempt to cleanse the ship's magic, you will be condemning the world that exists on it."

Guregohe met the messenger's grim expression with a grim expression of his own. "Not if I can take it safely back to Earth to spare those who deserve a second chance."

That was all the confirmation Shuyin needed to pass his own judgment. He leaned forward over the desk into the ambassador's face and spoke with his own voice in a low, menacing tone. "And since you are the god of Spira, I suppose you are the one who decides who gets second chances? What about me? I'm not a summoner or an alien. Do I deserve a second chance?"

"Only the living have the right to change their destiny," the ambassador tersely answered with a meaningful glower.

The warrior monk almost laughed. "But I died because of your decision to cleanse Zanarkand." The unsent spirit's amusement that he had been discovered faded quickly, though. "You stole that right from me!" Reaching within himself, he threw his rage toward the ambassador.

The collapse of the stadium, the inferno of the sinking city, the battle on the grasslands, the chase and execution by the firing squad, the pain and frustration of watching Lenne die, and then finding their corpses on the bottom of the ocean … The ambassador tried to fight it at first, but it was too much to bear all at once - he was consumed by it. The powerful, magical despair flooded his mind disorienting him and cutting him off from all perception of reality, so that he panicked and tried to flee.

))((

Reliving the same distress as he invoked it, Shuyin gritted his teeth in anger, raised Sanpul's gun, and fired point blank at the ambassador's skull. "I win this time, … and this discussion is over."

He opened the door to leave, but suddenly found himself the target of multiple armed guards. Rather than attempting to fight his way out, Shuyin slipped out of Sanpul's body, letting the man drop to his knees. As an unsent spirit, he rose above the armed guards to seek out a new host at the back of the crowd. As soon as his target cried out in surprise at the force of the possession, however, one of the other men in uniform clamped a rag soaked in sleep potion over his mouth and nose. The host's body was immediately overcome by the magical vapors, and since Shuyin failed to free himself, before his victim lost consciousness, … so did he.

))((

The junior aide pointed to the drugged guard on the floor. "Take him to the cavern that was closed off to be a bunker – the one at the bottom of the cliff. Isolate him as much as possible, but keep him under strict surveillance. And Keep him drugged with the sleep potion until our expert can arrive to deal with him! Hurry!"

He looked into the ambassador's office and saw the man's body slumped over his desk. He had heard the gunshot and feared the worst. He could see the blood puddle from where he stood, and turned to look at the warrior monk caught in the clutches of the Founders' guards. Sanpul looked terrified at what he'd just been through.

"What do we do with him?" one of the guards asked with uncertainty.

The junior aide took one more look at the ghastly sight of their fallen leader. What else could he do? "Arrest him for the ambassador's assassination."

"But I didn't do anything! It wasn't me! I couldn't stop him!" Sanpul shouted in desperate protest. "He made me do it!"

The junior aide was disturbed at the monk's reaction, but nodded in understanding. "I will stand witness for you at your trial, sir. Meanwhile, I must notify Bevelle. I think we've caught their vengeful spirit. Whether we can stop its killing spree, however, … is another matter." He said a prayer for his cousin as the guards whisked away the assassin, and he went in search of the ambassador's second in command.

))((

When Midoriha received the distress call from his cousin at the Founders' complex, he immediately advised using magic to sedate the spirit and get it to an isolated location. He had promised he would be there right away and assured him that he had done many sendings before. But he'd never done any sending like this. An unsent within a living person?

After rounding up his trusted guardians via com sphere and telling them to meet him outside of Djose, he went straight to the temple library and grabbed an armful of reference books on advanced spirit magic. He ran to his hovercar and dumped his supplies in the seat, but then remembered he needed his staff. After running back inside to retrieve it, he was about to lock his door when he remembered he needed to look the part as well. He'd been fussed at by one of the maesters for not wearing appropriate attire at the last sending – said it made the temple look bad. So, he grabbed his Yevonite robes and struck his arms through the sleeves, without fastening anything, before running back to the hovercar. "Damn. Now I forgot to lock the door," he told one of his guadians, giving him a dubious glance. "Never mind. This is urgent. And it may be our chance to prove to the Founders that we're here to help."

Pushing up his glasses, he started up the engine and sped down the sea-side road toward the canyon made of rocks that looked like brown mushrooms. As the wind whipped his somewhat-gathered, straw-colored hair into his face, he glanced once more to his faithful guardians. "Grab those books and look up anything you can on possessions and exorcisms."

"Exorcisms? You're joking right?" one of them scoffed.

"It's a stretch, I know, but … I think that's what we're dealing with this time. My cousin said they think they have an unsent soul trapped in a living host."

"Just kill the host," another guardian shrugged with a smirk.

Midoriha gave him a tight-lipped frown. "Yes, that's exactly what I was going to suggest, but I was hoping for a less moronic idea that might actually work." He spit the hair out of his mouth and tried to keep his mind on the road.

His guardians didn't find much information on the subject matter, but they read aloud to him what they did find as he drove. When they arrived at the isolated cavern, the wind-blown, disarrayed summoner pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose and examined the sleeping guard. "Was he violent?" he asked the commander of the unit.

"He killed the ambassador."

Midoriha was appalled. "I'm so sorry."

"He also killed the maester of the Bevelle temple and several warrior monks there."

"Very select victims ..." Midoriha gave that some thought. Then, he set about cleansing the cavern with holy water and placed wards around the walls, weaving a net of magical glyphs between the wards to keep the dangerous spirit trapped within. When he was finished, he attempted to smooth his stringy strands of hair back into place with the rest of his loose ponytail and sighed with nervous satisfaction at the stage he had set. Then, he faced his guardians and the armed guards standing over their drugged comrade. "I fear I must warn you. I will attempt to send him first, but if I cannot make him release the body, there may be nothing we can do to save the man he has possessed."

"You'd ... kill him?" the commander of the unit asked.

"This is obviously a malicious spirit. We must do all that we can to prevent it from taking more bodies or escaping, ... even if it means denying him the life of his host. I'm sorry, but like I said, we will consider that option a last resort. Please, listen very carefully to what I say next."

He showed the commander of the unit to the inside of the cavern's door. "I have prepared this door with wards from the inside to seal him in once it is shut. Do not open it, no matter what you hear from myself or my guardians, until the glyph that I've placed on the outside of the door fades. That will be your signal that the spirit has been sent and all is safe. If you do not see that glyph fade within a day's time, it will be up to you to devise a means to physically lock the door from the outside to keep anyone from opening it and releasing him. Be certain that the lock is a good one – one imbued with enchantments that abjure spirit magic, or he may come straight for you if he escapes. Ghosts and unsents, … they're not material, so they can pass through anything that isn't barred by magical means. And they are more likely to manifest physically if there is an abundance of magic available. You must prevent anything from entering or leaving this cavern until it is safe to do so."

The commander of the unit understood the sacrifice the summoner and his guardians were willing to perform, and it was almost enough to change his mind about summoners and their magic being a threat to Spira - almost. "Understood," he answered with unease.

Midoriha gave the signal for the guards outside to seal off the cavern entrance, locking himself and his guardians into the torch lit den with the sedated, possessed guard. His guardians took up defensive positions around the spirit. Then, the summoner clasped his magical staff between his thin hands and began his dance, not knowing what to expect. Yevon's teachings had said nothing about unsent who possess the living, but the books warned that unsent taking on former human shapes, rather than the shapes of fiends, were the hardest to destroy and send.

))((

On the edge of consciousness, as the sleep potion began to fade in his host's bloodstream, Shuyin began to feel himself being pulled away - a portal to the Farplane had been opened over him. "No," he shook his head in groggy protest, trying to wake from the effects of the sleep potion. "No, not ready … Not without Lenne ..."

Midoriha's guardians immediately moved forward to hold the possessed man down.

Shuyin willed his host to awaken and began to resist their physical restraint. He had to stop the summoner from sending him. "Let go of me! I've got to find Lenne!" he shouted over his host's voice. "I won't go until I find her!" The living body he invaded apparently gave him just enough shelter from the sending to put up a substantial resistance.

Midoriha paused in his half-finished spell and allowed it to fade. "Who is Lenne?" he asked, figuring if he could reach the source of the spirit's pain, then perhaps he could help resolve it. "If you're looking for someone left behind, perhaps we can help you find her, ... or carry a message to her."

Shuyin paused in his struggle, surprised that the summoner was willing to listen to him, but then returned to a threatening tone. "I don't need your help to find her. She was betrayed by Yevon and his temple. And you are a traitor just like Renuta, if you answered the Founders' call to send me."

"What?" The summoner shook his head in confusion. "No. I – no. I'm here because my cousin asked for help. I thought it would show the Founders we are no threat to them, and I'm here to help you rest."

"Not without Lenne!"

"Please, … explain. I don't understand your accusations. Renuta and Yevon betrayed someone named Lenne? What happened to you? What happened to make your hate so strong?"

Shuyin realized this scrawny, nerdy little summoner was honestly ignorant of what had passed as he exchanged uneasy glances with his guardians. Djose didn't know. How could they not know? "Zanarkand … was attacked by the temple in Bevelle. Zanarkand is dead now. Yevon was going to turn Lenne into a Fayth for the temple in Bevelle, but he used her brother instead. And then he killed everyone left in Zanarkand. Everyone. Lenne was taken prisoner. I tried to free her, but … " A tear slid down the guard's cheek for a girl he never met.

Midoriha couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Zanarkand is … dead? Bevelle turned on Yevon? Why were we not told? How was this kept from us?"

"Traitors ..." Shuyin bitterly answered. "Murderers ..."

Midoriha saddened at the spirit's bitter sentiments, and he saddened more at the news he was bringing. "I'm so sorry to hear about your … lost loved one. About … " Midoriha stood and looked to his guardians. "Oh my. Do you realize what this means? If Bevelle has betrayed Yevon and destroyed Zanarkand ..."

"You can't send me without Lenne. You have to let me find her," Shuyin begged. "If you let me out of here, I'll let you live," he bargained as his tone darkened once more.

Midoriha looked down at the summoning staff in his hands, then he looked at his guardians, all of whom were shaking their heads in silent protest, though they now shared his sympathy and worry. "I can't do that. I'm sorry. You've taken lives that were not yours to take. I can't let you hurt anyone else."

"They deserve it!"

"I'm sorry," Midoriha repeated. "I promise I will search for Lenne. I'll tell her you were looking for her and -"

Impatient and desperate to avoid being sent, Shuyin's spirit suddenly flew out of the guard's body into the summoner's mind, to force his final moments in Zanarkand and Bevelle upon him. He had to let him go. If he knew what it was like, maybe he would let him go!

Midoriha cried out and fell to his knees, clutching his head in shock at the overpowering visions and emotion. "No!" Shuyin was in control now, and there was no way he was going to let him finish that sending spell. Midoriha ran to the door and tried to pry it open. When he couldn't do it, he turned toward his horrified guardians. "Open this door right now!"

They had gasped at his possession, but felt helpless to do anything about it. They couldn't kill their own summoner. "We don't take orders from anyone but Midoriha!" one of the guardians responded. "Release him!"

Frustrated at their refusal, Shuyin scanned this host's talents with magic to find something that would make them jump into action. Summoners didn't usually know black magic, but this one knew a few elemental basics, so he fired a thundaga spell at the one that rebuked him.

The guardian suffered electrical burns and nearly passed out, but then stumbled and drew his sword. He started to rush forward and attack the summoner, but was caught by his comrade. "Stop! You'll hurt Midoriha!"

"Well, I'll take him down then. I'm getting out of here!" The Founders guard that had been Shuyin's sleeping host, drew his gun and took aim.

Shuyin growled in anger and cast his own magic at him - then at all of them - dark, maddening thoughts full of futility and hate. As they coped with their loss of control, he turned and tried the thundaga spell on the door. A ward on the door kept the magic from harming it. He dug at the creases in the rock until his scraped fingers bled, but then, an idea occurred to him. If the summoner could cast the magic-proof glyphs, maybe he could _uncast_ them. Shuyin wondered what that spell would be and began to search the summoner's mind for it.

While Shuyin was preoccupied with his attempt to escape, the guardians all fell to the power of his madness spell and raised their weapons in bitter anger against one another. Each guardian saw the other as a firing squad, a fiend, or a monstrous machina. Eventually, one of the guardians pointed his gun at the summoner and pulled the trigger.

Shuyin felt no pain as Midoriha slumped to the ground. He regretted the loss of his ability to throw more magic around, but at least the threat of being sent was removed. He was able to flee his dying host and rush the door in spirit form. He tried to seep through it, but the chains of hate and despair had grown so strong that he could not break past the wards the summoner had set within. Shuyin turned and flew at the other men in rage, entering each one of them until that host snapped and killed one of the others. When he was down to the last living body, he threw himself against the solid door until his battered host dropped in exhaustion. Shuyin absorbed all of the frustration and despair of each of his victims, and it fed his unsent chains even more.

After a moment, Shuyin left his host and assumed his own ethereal form among the bodies of the dead guard, summoner, and guardians that littered the ground around him. He tried to go through each of the walls in several places and continued to dig at the embedded glyphs that locked him in, but no amount of scraping would peel away the magic. He realized the full extent to which his soul was trapped now.

"Lenne!" he yelled in anguish through the door, knowing she could not hear him.

Exhausted with the futility of escape, and unable to stop the memories from replaying in his fragile mind, Shuyin collapsed to the floor of his enforced tomb. Drawing his knees to his chest and covering his head with his arms, he wept angry tears, ... alone.

Eventually, the torch burned itself out. Shuyin was shrouded in overwhelming darkness as he sat in the pyreflies with nothing but his memories.

It would be almost a thousand years before that door was opened again to release his tormented spirit.

))((

Yunalesca did not visit the Founders' headquarters to make her demands on their surrender. She did not get the chance.

A few days later, Sin rose from the sea and took flight toward the Founder's headquarters on the precipice overlooking Mushroom Rock Road. It took one last look at the towers there, then fired the same magic spell it had used on Bevelle's army, disintegrating Spira's last visible connection to the empire that _thought_ it could control Yu Yevon.

))((

Beneath the temple in Bevelle, in the Via Infinito, the real Spira, the spirit of the ship itself, could feel the destructive forces of Sin pounding her surface lands. She grieved the loss of Zanarkand and the attack on Bevelle, but the obliteration of the Founders' headquarters was something very different.

Sin had thrust all of Spira into open rebellion against their creators. Fearing the worst for her people in retaliation from Earth, the spirit of the ship followed Yevon's earlier advice and released her orbit lock, severing the last connection to the world that gave birth to her own. She was careful not to let the people who depended on her know that anything was amiss while she fled into an unknown sector of the universe. As long as the Farplane's magic kept their sun shining, their atmosphere circulating, and their gravitational level constant, she could sustain the lives of her people no matter where they drifted in space.

The Founders were gone, and Spira was finally free, … or so everyone thought.


	26. Chapter 26: Summoning the Dream

Chapter 26: Summoning the Dream

A knock on the door of Yunalesca's study drew her attention away from her work, and an acolyte stepped in with a bow. "The ronso have arrived with our Fayth, My Lady."

"Thank you." Yunalesca rose from her desk and closed the book she had been scribing. She had been busy for several weeks hunting down traitors and trying to put the temple back in order. Though many had sided with Maester Renuta and the Founders before the war, after Bevelle was left half-undone by Sin, it was amazing how many temple clergy and guards denied they ever supported the rebellion. Now that the city was beginning to rebuild, she turned her focus toward opening the temple to its normal services and informing the citizens how Bevelle's dependency upon machina had destroyed Zanarkand _and _Bevelle. She informed them that the only way to prevent it from happening again was to follow the teachings of her father. Therefore, her most recent matters of business entailed organizing and detailing those teachings into formal documents for all of Yevon's temples. "Deliver this to my husband and ask him to read it," she told the acolyte. "Tell him I am placing the Fayth on the lower level, and ask him to come see me there as soon as he has a chance."

"Yes, My Lady." The acolyte accepted the book and carried it away with her.

Yunalesca closed her door behind her and headed toward the ronso in the main hall. "Thank you for bringing him. I know it must have been a wearisome journey. Please, come with me."

))((

Bahamut looked around the big temple in wonder as he followed behind the four large ronso that were under strength-enhancement spells to transport his stone statue from Mt. Gagazet to Bevelle. They pulled it on an all-terrain sled most of the distance, but now that they were actually here, they decided to carry it by hand. They followed the high summoner's daughter, who was now high summoner herself, and ended up in front of a special service lift at the back of the temple. It was large enough to allow all four ronso to carry the stone on the lift at once, but Bahamut chose to levitate above them as they descended into the depths under the temple. He touched ground once more, followed the party to the chamber where his new home would be, and watched as the ronso carefully set the stone node in place.

Yunalesca turned to the ronso and thanked them again. "Please go back the way that you came and ask to be led to the dining hall. Replenish your energy and rest before you return home."

"Elder Kinan says Fayth Scar safe with ronso."

"Tell him I am grateful. I sent messengers to all our temples letting them know that Zanarkand was attacked by Bevelle, and word is now being broadcast to all the other cities. Bevelle apparently wanted to make sure it had everything under control before sharing the news, but word is getting around now. No one should be going to Zanarkand in the future, except summoners on pilgrimage to pay their respects. It is now a sacred resting place for my father and many other lost souls." Yunalesca waited until the ronso bowed and left. Then, she faced the stone node that contained the boy's eternally sleeping body. "Bahamut, can you hear me?"

The boy climbed onto his glass dome and sat down on it, then levitated just a little above it before revealing himself to her. It was a strain to make contact between dimensions this way, especially with so little magic present, but soon his ghostly apparition was visible to her.

She smiled upon seeing him. "This is your new home. You are under the Bevelle temple." She spread her arms, inviting him to look around. "I have this place back under Yevonite control now, but loyalists of the Founders still exist all over Spira. Therefore, you must listen carefully to what I have to say." She lowered her arms and took a few graceful steps toward him, folding her hands before her. "You are a special Fayth, Bahamut. You are not only the guardian of the temple, but you are also the guardian of the entrance to the ship. And I have decided it would be best if the fact that we are a colony ship was forgotten. The entrance to the bridge has been sealed off by Spira herself to prevent anyone from taking over a mutinous command of our course - which is probably just as well. But I will be taking further measures to be sure that the entrance to the dungeons and the Farplane will be locked away, even from the majority of the temple priests. From now on, the only entrance will be the balcony maintained by the guado in Guadosalam. They know better than anyone not to disrupt the Farplane's magic for they are the ones who brought it to us. The Founders may have been destroyed by Sin, but their loyal supporters are refusing to disassemble their machina, and they're boasting that they will someday rise in power and return. We've come to far to turn back now. Spira must remain free. So, ... we must forget that she is a ship and erase the memories of Earth. We need to let Spira be the world unto herself that she was meant to be."

"You can't erase a memory," he spoke through the dimensional barrier.

"Perhaps not completely, ... but dusty memories will eventually be forgotten. I have my priests scouring all the libraries and public offices on Spira to remove any mention of Earth-related things from the archives, and the temples have been instructed never to mention it to their students again. When the older generation's mumblings about the past become unfashionable and vague, the new generation will not care about such rumors. But as a Fayth, you will always be a key to the past, Bahamut. You must guard it well, or someone could threaten to destroy Spira once more."

Yunalesca began to pace lightly, ... thoughtfully. "I am writing down my father's teachings and passing them among the temples, so the citizens of this _new_ Spira will know how to prevent this kind of destruction from happening again. I have devised a new training program for all summoners, in which they should try to gain the trust of as many aeons as they can, so that they will be able to defend their towns and villages from any threatening fiends once all the machina are gone. It will be up to the Fayth to judge which summoners are truly worthy of your trust. Choose quality over quantity, and always choose carefully. Test their magic, their endurance, and their wisdom. Your choices in the dream will shape Spira's future, but once you have bonded with your chosen summoners, it is their actions that will shape reality."

His presence was beginning to flicker and thin at the strain of reaching back into reality on his own. "Understood."

The footfalls of armored boots echoed down the hall behind her. Smiling at the familiarity of her husband's long strides, Yunalesca gave the boy a bow and allowed him to depart. Then, she turned to face Zaon as he entered the chamber. He was holding the document she had just finished composing. "Did you read it? What did you think?"

Bahamut was exhausted from his effort to become visible to her. Perhaps the only exhaustion a spirit could feel was in trying to be real again. He stopped levitating and sat sprawled on his tomb as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"I think it's very thorough," Zaon answered. "Perhaps a little _too_ thorough," he added with a slight wince and an amused smirk. "You wish to be rid of destructive machina, not every tool that mankind has ever created. You would ban airships and hovercars?"

"Magic can take the place of any machina," she insisted with a small pout at his mild criticism. "Airships and hovercars can be used as quick transport for battles. We are too dependent on easy luxuries and take them for granted. We should return to using our feet and teleports that cover only short distances, like our magical lifts here in the temple or the teleport pads we gave to the ronso. Hard to attack a city when you can't travel more than snail's pace or a slug's length," she added with a confident smile as she draped her arms around his neck, flirtatiously persuading him to agree.

"Then, I assume you will be taking the guns away from the temple guards?"

"Yes, of course. They have no place here. Our task is to heal and protect. Only those trusted to pass the Fayth's Cloister of Trials will be permitted to use aeons to combat fiends. Mages will also have to pass tests to prove they are worthy of their magic studies."

He lifted a brow in amusement to challenge her. "Clocks, communication spheres, sphere recorders ..."

"Can all operate on magical energy harnessed from places like Macalania, and aren't likely to harm someone," she reminded him with a cool smile. "But I suppose I can cross a few exceptions off of that forbidden machina list. What's important is that it becomes impossible to create a large weapon stash for anyone, including us."

"And what will you do with all the discarded machina?"

She frowned at him for finding a point she had not yet considered. "I don't know. We'll … dump them all in the desert, or something. Bury them under tons of sand." She took her journal back from his hands to make a note about disposal options.

Zaon chuckled. "That should do nice things to the engines and gears. You know, I have to say, I'm surprised at how easily you've slipped into this leadership position. Then again, with a father like Yevon, you were practically raised for the role, weren't you. Perhaps this has been your destiny all along."

Yunalesca blushed slightly at her husband's compliment and confidence in her. "Thank you. I think that deserves a candle light dinner." She gave him a kiss, then withdrew to gesture toward the stone tomb. "By the way, did you see our Fayth has arrived?"

Zaon couldn't see the ghostly little boy sitting on his tomb, but he bowed reverently toward it. "Hopefully, he will be able to restore some sanctity to this place." Straightening he faced his wife once more. "But, the reason I came down here is to tell you we have an urgent visitor upstairs - a man from Besaid City."

"Besaid City? From the temple?"

"I don't think he's a temple official. He looks quite desperate. Said he wouldn't talk to anyone but you, though we offered to hear him out."

"Besaid City is nothing but beach resorts and health spas. How could he be desperate?" Curious and concerned, Yunalesca headed back out of the chamber of the Fayth and took the lift with her husband to the main hall of the temple once more.

Bahamut followed, since he had nothing better to do.

Yunalesca spotted the man from Besaid City right away. He was sweaty, rather ragged in appearance, and had a strange expression of urgency on his face – an expression she had seen all too recently in both Zanarkand and Bevelle in the wake of their disasters. "Can I help you, sir?"

As soon as he saw her, he rushed forward and bowed to his hands and knees. "Lady Yunalesca, please, ... _please_ come to Besaid City and rid us of the giant fiend! It has destroyed everything! Our temple said our aeon could defeat it, but it wasn't strong enough. Perhaps you can summon something stronger. They say you saved Bevelle before it was a total loss – that you drove the beast away. Besaid is in ruins now. Please help us!" The man broke down into tears during his begging and laid his forehead on his hands to mourn his losses.

Bahamut was at a loss for words. Why would Yevon attack Besaid City? Besaid had done nothing wrong.

Yunalesca seemed to be just as disturbed by the news. "Perhaps, … there were traitors among you, or it sensed you had weapon machina," she decided. "Is it gone now?"

"Yes," the man lifted his chin and wiped his face on his sleeve. "But the survivors are frightened - very frightened. Please, send help before it returns."

"I'm sorry to hear of your losses," she quietly sympathized. "Tell your people ..." She thought for a moment. "Tell them that if they live according to Yevon's teachings, it shouldn't return. In the meantime, have them get rid of all their machina. I will be creating more aeons soon, and one of them will be strong enough to defeat Sin. I promise."

"Thank you. Bless you, Lady Yunalesca." The man stood, bowed, straightened, and then bowed again.

"Rest and have something to eat before you return home." She gestured to one of the nearby acolytes who had overheard his plea, and the apprentice led him away.

Zaon drew close enough to whisper to his wife. "That is the third attack in so many weeks. Yevon didn't stop at Bevelle and the Founders' headquarters. He struck the small city built on bridges over the Moonflow _and_ the one along the highroad. Now he has struck Besaid City. How many more cities does he intend to hit before he has satiated his appetite for revenge?"

"He is destroying their machina and traitors," she reasoned.

Zaon's brows drew together, but still tried to keep his voice down. "By hitting the entire city? That's what Bevelle did to Zanarkand. We are no better than Renuta and Guregohe if we let this continue. His judgment has become too broad. He's spinning out of control from absorbing so much hatred and grief, … so much death."

"Perhaps he's trying to tear down the old cities to get rid of the technology and Founder's loyalists," she suggested, becoming more upset. "He's trying to help Spira start over."

"That's no excuse for genocide. We must end it, Yunalesca. You know that we must," he quietly urged. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he drew her into his arms to comfort her, though he knew his words were going to hurt. "Your father is not himself any more. I don't think he is capable of stopping himself."

Bahamut watched with sympathy as Yunalesca struggled with Zaon's truth. She knew he was right, but her surrender was reluctant. "I will … need to create at least one final aeon," she whispered through her tears. "I will make it strong enough to destroy his armor."

"Only his armor?" Zaon cautiously asked.

"I fear the dark prayers he summoned for his own physical transformation, but it is his aeon armor that was crafted from the souls and sorrows of those who died. It's the armor that absorbs and intensifies his rage, converting it into destructive magic," Yunalesca confessed as she lowered her gaze and grasped a handful of long, silver hair to draw over her shoulder, as if it were a comforting blanket. "My father has done so many good things in his lifetime. His compassion for others is what drove him to establish these temples and push his magic beyond limits. If he could be free of the shell that surrounds him with rage, maybe he could calm down, even if he can never be himself again."

"Then ... no matter how much destruction he brings to Spira, you will not -"

"He is my _father_, Zaon!" She snapped at what he was hinting toward. Then, she lowered her voice again, not wanting to draw attention to their conversation. "I will not take my own father's life." With a frown, she wiped away a tear and retreated to her study to edit her document on banned machina.

Zaon sighed and rubbed the tension from the back of his neck, clearly feeling guilty for suggesting that she end her father's life. But he was also noticeably worried that Yevon's taste for punishment had gone beyond justice.

Bahamut couldn't help but sympathize with Lady Yunalesca for not wanting to harm her father, but he also felt sorry for the Fayth that would have to face off against Sin. Considering what he'd seen Yu Yevon do to Bevelle, defeating even his armored aeon shell was _not_ going to be an easy task.

))((

As Sin continued to ravage various cities throughout Spira, everyone began to fear it. Summoners and pilgrims alike came to Bevelle to beg Lady Yunalesca to help banish it, and she always promised the same thing – adherence to Yevon's teachings should prevent it from returning, and she would create an aeon of equal strength to defeat it.

When she was certain that Yevon's laws were firmly established, at least in Bevelle, Yunalesca journeyed back to the Zanarkand ruins with her husband to create the final aeon intended for one purpose only - the defeat of Sin.

Bahamut was curious to see how his summoner would handle this confrontation with her honored father, so he followed.

Yunalesca went to the summoning chamber at the back and bottom halls of the Zanarkand temple and set her courage and resolution in the forefront of her mind. As Zaon moved to stand before her, however, her will began to crumble into tears.

"I love you." He kissed her forehead to encourage her.

"If I knew of any other way ..."

"This is the way it must be. No one else should bear this burden. We both know this. You are my summoner, … and I am willing." Zaon stepped back, drew a breath, knelt on one knee, … and waited.

Still fighting against her own tears, the high summoner began the ancient dance that would transform her beloved guardian into a Fayth.

"What? No!" Bahamut watched in dismay as Yunalesca entombed Zaon's body in a stone node not unlike his own. The ghostly boy touched down to the floor of the summoning chamber, where she wept over the stone-encased soul, but then decided to remain hidden from her view, giving her time to grieve alone.

When Yunalesca was ready, she straightened. "Zaon ..." She could barely make herself say his name, much less begin casting another spell, yet that is exactly what she did. A four-legged monstrosity with two forearms and large horns rose from the glyphs while her summoning magic pried open a hole in between reality and spirit realm. As her creation rose high above her, Yunalesca looked pleased, but at the same time, she could not bear to look upon him in that form. Weak enough now that she had trouble standing, she cast yet another spell right behind the summoning. For this new aeon to be strong enough to pierce Sin's armor, it needed another soul to fortify it in a manner similar to Sin's construction. Yunalesca's soul would have to do.

Bahamut watched in macabre fascination as the high summoner's spirit walked away from her body and was absorbed into her guardian's aeon. Yunalesca's physical body was in a meditative trance now, but the paired souls of the aeon turned around to face the chamber of the stars. The beast let out a haunting cry that echoed throughout Zanarkand's ruins. Their souls called out to Yevon for confrontation, and it wasn't long before Sin rose from the dark waters beneath the dead city in response.

Zaon took the initiative with fast, powerful attacks, followed by tremendously strong black magic spells. He took a beating from Sin in return, but the shell did eventually crack and open. Then, like a crow digging into a broken clam, Zaon exposed the dark entity within.

Bahamut sighed with relief, but just when he thought the battle was won, the unthinkable happened. Yevon's aeon, which visibly radiated dark energy now, lashed out with one more powerful spell that stabbed into Zaon and seemed to drive him mad. Zaon bellowed with rage and thrashed to escape as Yevon attempted to take him for his new shell.

Yunalesca's spirit was ejected from the battle for the aeon's body. "NO! Father!" She tried to run back to her husband. "Let him go! He's trying to help you!" But as a spirit, she could do nothing except watch as her father's dark aeon melded into her guardian's manifestation. "Zaon!" she screamed and ran back to her own body to reclaim it and help him, but it was too late. When Yevon ripped his daughter's soul from her bonded aeon, he also severed her connection to herself. The summoner's body, spent with exhaustion from the effort of casting such difficult magic, collapsed to the ground.

Bahamut gasped and ran forward, too, but in spirit form, he was helpless to aid either of them. He glanced at the stone tomb and was surprised to find it completely void of any body or magical seals. Zaon's soul was now possessed by the enigmatic entity that had once been Yu Yevon. The aeon paused for a moment at the sight of the pyreflies drawing together over his wife's body. Then, he solemnly retreated back into the dark waters beneath Zanarkand, as the old aeon armor burst into particles of magic that dispersed throughout the ruins.

Bahamut blinked in silence at the broken spirit clutching her own wrists with no way back into her mortal form. He didn't know what to say.

"You shouldn't have followed," she spoke after a moment. Apparently, she could see the boy's spirit now that they both existed on the same plane of magic.

"I ..." He was sad for her loss. "You're my summoner. I was supposed to help you, but you didn't summon me."

"Because I didn't want you here," she answered through clenched teeth. "Our bond would not have been strong enough to defeat Sin."

"Is ... it over?"

Yunalesca looked down at her lifeless body. "It will never be over now. Zaon was right. My father absorbed too much hatred and grief. He will use the new aeon to rebuild Sin. It will take time, though." She sniffled and sat up. "The people of Spira can use that time to rebuild. Maybe it can restore their hope." She lifted her gaze toward Mount Gagazet. "As long as they continue to honor my father's laws, there's a chance they can prevent his return. And I will continue helping them defeat Sin to bring that calm."

Bahamut's brows drew together in worry. "Continue? But if Lord Yevon continues to rebuild Sin, … nothing is resolved. More people will die."

Yunalesca felt no chill as the wind blew through her. "I have done what I could, child. My father will be impossible to defeat now. But someday, someone will come this way to try again. Someone will free Zaon and return him to me. Until then, all I can do is remain here and offer the spell for the Final Aeon to any summoners who survive the pilgrimage."

Bahamut backed away from Yunalesca's spirit with caution, ... fear. Though she was a high summoner, Yunalesca had chosen to remain unsent to wait upon her husband's banishment and manage her father's madness. And somewhere out there beneath the pyreflies among the ruins, a new Sin sank below the waves to recover, ... to meld, ... and to dream.

))((

The sun was on the rise in the cloudless sky, marking the beginning of a brand new day - or at least the beginning of a day that was widely remembered by the Fayth. Dream Zanarkand was not nearly as populated as the real one had been, so only a few people hustled by, faded out, and reappeared periodically at the eastern end of the Zanarkand harbor. But the Fayth kept themselves busy by collecting memories from the dead in the Farplane, as well. They had done an amazing job at gradually bringing the city back to life - attempting to fill those gaps.

Sighing to himself, Bahamut sat down on the deck of Shuyin's houseboat, which remained docked at the far end of the pier across the water from the mainland, ... as always. Staring out across the sparkling ocean, he was thinking quietly and minding his own business when he suddenly found himself in the middle of three children chasing one another. Two of the children sported chestnut-brown hair and hazel-green eyes, but the other boy had unruly blond hair that had been bleached into shades of white and gold from time spent outdoors under the sun. Though Bahamut hadn't met Shuyin when he was that young, he knew beyond a doubt that's who the blond boy was, and he smiled at the unexpected glimpse into the past.

"Walk!" a gruff voice behind them ordered. "Or someone's going to plow into something and get hurt!"

Bahamut's eyes widened as Jecht and another man walked right through him, making him gasp in surprise. Who's memories were these? Had Shuyin come back?

"Just set the crabs down right here," Jecht continued. "Let's go inside and I'll show you where the cabin is. We'll head out after the kids have settled a bit. My boy's too wound up right now. Bound to push someone overboard when he's like that. Better for it to happen here than out in the middle of nowhere." He chuckled and took a sip of his beer.

"Rrraaahhh! Gotcha!" The energetic, blond-headed boy wrapped his arms around his friend and lifted him off the deck in a tackle, attempting to throw him aside.

The girl cried out as they slammed into her and knocked her down, falling on top of her and bumping her head against the wall. "Ouch! Stop it!"

"Hey!" Jecht snatched his son up by an arm to scold him. "Calm down. Look at what you did to Kaila. Pay attention to what you're doing, or I'm going to plant your ass in a corner somewhere."

Bahamut blinked in astonishment. "Kaila?"

Two women helped the girl up and checked her head for abrasions. "What do you boys have to say for yourselves?" one of the women prompted.

"Sorry," the brown-haired little boy reluctantly offered. The blond-haired boy only folded his arms across his pot-belly and frowned at the girl for spoiling his fun.

Jecht popped the back of his son's head. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Sorry," little Shuyin groused.

"Inside, wild child - and _walk_ this time." Jecht opened the door and gave his son a small push, encouraging his friend to follow. The blitz player smirked in amusement at the little girl as she gave the boys a defensive, dirty look and entered the houseboat behind them, careful to keep her distance from their rowdy play. "Told ya," Jecht spoke to the other man, drawing a chuckle from him. "Thank the gods there was a wall there, or we'd be fishing her out of the water." He held the door for the other three adults to follow the children inside, then he closed the door behind himself.

Bahamut blinked in astonishment again as the door shut on the family and their guests. Then, he turned around to see he wasn't alone on the deck. Kaila was perched on the rail of the top deck.

Hopping down from the rail, she came down the stairs to join him on the lower deck and sat next to him. "It was a beautiful day for sailing. I'll always think of Shuyin on days like this." Smiling, she lifted her face to the sun in the clear blue sky and deeply inhaling the salty air on the ocean breeze. "I didn't expect to find you here. I thought you didn't like being in the dream."

Bahamut looked back out to sea and sighed. "This was a good place to be. The boat could take us to the beach, and the beach was always fun, ... even if Shuyin did throw me in the water a lot."

Kaila laughed because she could imagine him doing that. "Well, _this_ boat isn't going anywhere outside of the bay. Even my memories of sailing on the ocean can't accommodate those limitations. No other place exists in this dream except Zanarkand - not even the rest of Spira. Yevon's done something to the dream so that some things from reality don't exist here."

"That's just as well." Bahamut turned his chin to face the ocean and spoke in a rather melancholy tone. "All of Spira outside the dream is doomed, anyway," he glumly answered.

Kaila leaned forward to see under the quiet boy's hood. "What makes you say that?"

Bahamut related the events he had witnessed regarding Yunalesca's final summoning.

Kaila's brows drew together with concern. "She tried to kill her own father?"

The boy shook his head. "She couldn't bring herself to do it, even though Lord Yevon's soul is no longer … human. He's turned into a fiend – the biggest, strongest fiend in all of Spira. Lady Yunalesca set up the temples to encourage new summoners to gain the trust of all the Fayth at each of the other temples on a pilgrimage, so she believes that eventually someone will come to Zanarkand expecting to find one here, too. But there's nothing left of Lord Zaon, so she's offering to stay and make new aeons for anyone who makes it this far. I guess no one else knows that spell except her. She and Lord Yevon both guarded their secrets of magic so closely." With a pout, Bahamut put his elbows on his knees and let his cheeks fall into his fists. "He'll always be angry at Spira for what happened to Zanarkand. And since he can possess other aeons like that, there's no chance of ever defeating him."

Kaila somberly considered Bahamut's insights on the matter. "I was right, then. That's why Lord Yevon summons us to dream. Our good memories - memories of Zanarkand before it died – soothe his conscious." She squinted at him in the warm sunlight that contrasted his gloomy mood. "Is that why you came here, after witnessing such a thing? You probably have good memories here, too, somewhere under all the layers of time. Maybe you should try to find them."

Bahamut tilted his chin, curious at her phrasing more than interested in her suggestion. "_Layers_ of time?"

"Time here doesn't work the way it does in reality, or you'd see too many people in the same place at the same time. There is no real present. Everything you see here happened in the past. So, time in this place has layers – like volumes in a video series. It goes as far back as the memories of our oldest souls, but only goes up to our own final days. There's nothing new in the dream beyond that, ... unless you want to consider the ripples."

Kaila had Bahamut's full attention now. "Ripples?"

"Alternate realities." She tried to think of how to explain it. "Memories are limited to a certain time and place, and sometimes they aren't very clear or correct. So, these people walking around ... Sometimes their clothing and faces blur or change, especially if two Fayth remember the same thing differently. People appear and fade unexpectedly because memories can't trace anything prior to, or after, what was actually experienced by the dead soul. Their actions follow the patterns preset in the past, ... unless something is done to purposefully alter the pattern. It's like … revising a story for a different outcome."

Kaila looked back to where the children had their mishap. "Shuyin had no choice but to knock me down and bump my head into the wall. No matter how many times I replay that memory, he will always do the same blockheaded thing because that's what really happened." She chuckled lightly to herself. "If I don't want to be squashed, the only way I can stop him is to change something. But changing one thing sometimes ends up changing other things. That's why we call them ripples." She looked back to Bahamut with a small wince. "Does that make sense?"

Bahamut nodded. "So, ... how would you prevent your head from getting bumped?"

"Well, patterns are really hard to break. Like the laws of physics, something put in motion stays in motion until something else stops it. You just have to find that something else that can make a difference." She tried to think for a moment, then stood with a grin. "Shuyin ran into me because he was tackling Koji, right? So, ... erasing Koji from the time flow should prevent it from happening."

"You would erase your own brother?" Bahamut didn't like the sound of that option.

"It's not really Koji. It's just a memory of him, and one that I can recall whenever I want." She turned around and replayed her memory, stopping it at a point _before_ Shuyin collided with his friend for his playful tackle. It was as easy as touching a memory sphere - only this memory sphere was life-sized and 3-D. In the blink of an eye, Koji's illusionary image vanished. Then, she set the time flow in motion again to test her theory.

"Rrraaahhh! Gotcha!" the blond-headed boy wrapped his arms around little Kaila and lifted her off the deck in a tackle, attempting to throw her aside.

She cried out as he slammed into her and knocked her down, falling on top of her and bumping her head against the wall. "Ouch! Stop it!"

"Hey!" Jecht snatched his son up by an arm to scold him. "Calm down. Look at what you did to Kaila. Pay attention to what you're doing, or I'm going to plant your ass in a corner somewhere."

"Are you all right?" Dannae and Kaila's mother helped the girl up and checked her head for abrasions. "What do you have to say for yourself?" Dannae prompted.

Jecht popped the back of his son's head. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Sorry," little Shuyin groused.

"Inside, wild child - and _walk_ this time." Jecht opened the door and gave his son a small push.

Kaila stopped time and scowled at the results. "That little pinhead! He would have knocked me down anyway! What's wrong with him tackling little girls like that?"

"Wait a minute." Bahamut stood and pulled a tool box from the side of the deck into the spot where the tackle takes place. "Run it again."

Kaila cleared the thought, then set it in motion from the beginning once more.

"Rrraaahhh! Gotcha!" the blond-headed boy reached out to grab little Kaila, but his foot hit the side of the tool box and he fell before tackling her. He cried out in pain and clutched his foot, wincing at the sensation that jolted through his stubbed toes.

She turned around and saw that Shuyin had hurt himself. "Did you step on something?" she asked, crouching next to him with curiosity.

"Hey!" Jecht shook his head in disgust and pushed the tool box back into place. "Calm down. Serves you right for running when I told you not to. Pay attention to what you're doing, or I'm going to plant your ass in a corner somewhere."

"Are you all right?" Dannae checked Shuyin's foot for abrasions.

"It's a stubbed toe." Jecht hauled his son back onto his feet. "Geeze, stop babying him, or he's going to cry about it." He opened the door and gave his son a small push. "Inside, wild child - and _walk_ this time."

Kaila cleared the memory. "Hey, good call! He still got in trouble, though. Shuyin was always in trouble for one reason or another." She laughed lightly. "See? Patterns are hard to break." Looking toward the front door of the otherwise empty houseboat, she sighed. "It's a shame he isn't here to supply these memories himself, ... you know?"

"Shuyin's … not himself anymore," Bahamut reminded her.

She saddened and looked down at her feet. "I know. But he could make this place seem so real again. Koji could, too, if he were here. And Lenne – she's still missing, too, isn't she. So many unsent ..."

Bahamut nodded sadly and stared out at the peaceful ocean once more as he listened to the waves gently bumping the boat's hull against the pier. He had not seen his sister since he left for the ronso caverns. He wondered if she was searching for Shuyin the way he was searching for her. But Lenne was a summoner. Like Yunalesca, she should know better than to hang onto reality and risk turning into a fiend. "Will the Fayth just keep adding to the dream as more people die?"

Kaila shrugged. "I suppose. These memories have no real lives of their own, so that's the only way Dream Zanarkand can have a future. Even the ripples fade unless you stick with them and keep detouring them, … because they never really happened. Eventually, though, new generations won't have any memories of Zanarkand, except ruins, … if anyone ever visits them. And that won't help Lord Yevon. He needs us to dream of a living Zanarkand for as long as he lives, … because the past is the only thing that gives him peace now."

Bahamut couldn't help but think they might be summoning Dream Zanarkand for a very, very, _very_ long time.


	27. Chapter 27: Legendary Hero

Chapter 27: Legendary Hero

Nine centuries and decades passed. The Final Summoning had led to the Spiral of Death. Each decade that came brought the return of Sin, and each return saw another summoner and guardian sacrificed for Yevon's Calm. Cities were built and rebuilt on top of their own ruins, some barely having a chance to cope with their losses before they were struck again, while others never recovered at all. Spira became a world clinging to the laws of Yevon in hopes that someday there would be an Eternal Calm - the hope that if they atoned, someday they would be free from Sin.

Due to the temple's censorship of Earth spheres, Sin's decimation of the older populations, and society's shift toward a more primitive means of survival, the orphaned, younger generations eventually forgot their origins. The only thing that mattered any more was achieving ten years of Calm – that's how long it took for Yevon to rebuild Sin from whatever new aeon he possessed. The maesters of Yevon's temples were the only ones who remained aware of the fact that Spira was once a colony ship, and they were quick to realize that such knowledge gave them great power. They guarded Spira's past jealously.

The new maester of the Bevelle temple attempted to ban people from repeating the haunting song that the Fayth could be heard singing on occasion. But when that failed to stop it from catching on among the population, the maester after him told everyone it was a holy song, sung in defiance of Sin, rather than in defiance of Bevelle. The maester after him subtly altered Yunalesca's writings to erase the fact that Bevelle and Yevon were ever enemies. And such changes continued down the line of leadership, so that each maester of the Bevelle temple became the new behind-the-scenes emperor of Spira in every aspect except name. Generation after generation grew up adhering to the evolving laws of the Temple of Yevon, but Sin never changed. It kept returning - kept demanding atonement - kept destroying.

Finding someone to blame as the obstacle to perfect atonement was easy once the desert-dwelling Al Bhed people began digging up the ancient machina that had been destroyed on the remote island of Bikanel. The Al Bhed were an alien race of humans who had an uncanny talent with science and mathematics, so they thought it was a waste to throw away good machina parts. Their restoration of ancient technology quickly put them at odds with the Temple of Yevon, which declared them heretics and set out to make them an example to anyone who would disobey Yevon's teachings. When Sin destroyed any towns or villages, Yevon's far-reaching finger immediately pointed to the Al Bhed and their refusal to adhere to the machina ban.

Under Bevelle, as all those centuries passed, Bahamut's spirit remained locked away guarding his own secrets of the past. Alone in his chamber, bereft of even a cleaning maid to sweep the dust from the cover of his tomb, he spent most of his days in the suspended consciousness of the dream, more interested in exploring the logistics of alternate realities than finding his own memories. An occasional summoner would brave entering his halls and request his aid, and he played his role as the mighty dragon aeon when called upon in times of need. He befriended, loved, and lost many summoners, not unlike his sister and her two guardians, but he could only save them from harm for so long before the more successful ones were sacrificed to Yevon in the end. The rest usually died trying to make it that far.

It saddened him that Spira's mortals had become trapped in this cycle of death, but not even the immortal Fayth could help them break it. They were trapped, too, by Yevon's summoning spell. In their eternal, non-restful slumber, the dream became the play that kept them occupied. After almost a thousand years of maintaining the same illusions and searching for lost memories, however, even that began to feel like a tiresome burden. Forever is simply too long to exist.

))((

Bahamut and Valefor, the Fayth from the temple in Besaid, stood together on the road to Zanarkand within the dream and watched as Sin crossed the threshold between illusion and reality on its own as no other aeon could. It had obviously just returned from wrecking havoc somewhere else on Spira, and had returned to the dream to sooth itself with better memories … again. "Has it been ten years already?" she asked. Vaelfor's Fayth had been a young girl with brown hair sporting twin braids. She was only a few years older than him, and the two of them were the youngest among the Fayth. After having shared various summoners over the ages, the Fayth knew each other well and had come to look upon each other as family.

"A new summoner from Bevelle has recently determined to begin the pilgrimage." Bahamut told her. "His name is Lord Braska. He's a bit unusual because he was excommunicated from the temple for marrying an Al Bhed, but he's determined to take the pilgrimage anyway because his wife was recently killed by Sin. He shows great promise for being the final one this time, so you will probably be meeting him soon. He will leave behind a small daughter." Bahamut sighed heavily and sat down on the ground. "I just wish there was something more we could do for him, so that he could go home to her when he's done. But if he wins, he will die like all the others."

"Maybe this time, … maybe this Braska will be the one strong enough to defeat both Sin and Lord Yevon," Valefor answered, trying to sound optimistic.

"To defeat Lord Yevon, the final aeon must be able to resist his power of possession. But in almost a thousand years, no human or Fayth has been strong enough to do it – not even when their souls are combined." Bahamut kicked an illusionary rock as he watched Sin sank beneath the surface. "Lady Yunalesca once told me that our choices in here shaped the future out there, … but she was wrong. It's not enough. Nothing we do in here is ever going to change reality unless someone can create an aeon as powerful as Lord Yevon himself."

Valefor sighed. "It's a shame we can't change reality the way we make ripples in the dream. We could just erase Lord Yevon, and it would be as if the Machina War never happened. But it's his dream, so I guess deleting him would be kinda rude." She frowned with discouragement.

"I doubt we could delete him, even if we tried. His magic is unique because he wasn't transformed into a Fayth like everyone else. He just … _changed_. I'm not even sure whether he's alive or dead beneath that new form, but I'm guessing he's like an unsent fiend, based on his vengeful behavior. Either way, he's real in the dream _and_ reality because he's a summoner and aeon at the same time, … whereas we're nothing more than ghosts until someone pulls together enough magic to make our aeons real. And even then, our aeons are no match for him because he can possess us." Feeling hopeless, Bahamut stared at the bits of broken buildings from the ruins of the real city that had somehow become adhered to the top of the aeon's colossal head - something that often happened to the old armor shell after basking between dimensions. But then an idea he never considered before struck him. "Who supplies the magic for the dream? The Fayth? Or Yevon?"

"Well, many of the Zanarkand Fayth never studied magic at all, yet they can summon illusions like experts. So, I guess that means the spell for the summoning the dream is really coming from Yevon, but passing through the Fayth's memories to shape it."

"Like an artist's creativity flowing through the brush and paint …" He gave that some thought. "Maybe Yunalesca was right after all, but we've been using the wrong tools. Ordinary people and aeons won't work – not even when joined. We need a different tool – something Yevon isn't expecting." Bahamut faced Valefor with sudden inspiration. "Do you think we could summon our own aeon?"

Her brows rose at the novel idea. "You mean, … like a Fayth's Fayth?" She tilted her head sideways and gave him a funny look for his suggestion, but then she frowned in consternation as she thought about it more. "I suppose our memories are a bit like aeons, since they're both made of magic, but … these illusions are empty. They have no souls to be turned into Fayth. We don't know the spells to make a Fayth or an aeon, and there's no one outside the dream to summon it. So, you'd need some other way to make the illusion real."

Bahamut was not discouraged. "What about Sin? It can go between dimensions on its own."

Valefor looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Sin won't offer to take an illusion into reality for us – especially if it knows why we're doing it."

"What if we tricked him into it? What if we made one of these dream illusions real enough to hitch a ride with Yevon, and then defeat him on the other side?"

"An illusion couldn't defeat Yevon. Not even the final aeons can defeat Yevon."

"But our illusions are made with Yevon's magic!" Bahamut grinned with animated excitement. "His _own_ summoning magic might be the _one_ thing strong enough to resist his possession magic. Or maybe the fact that it has no soul would make it immune. It would be like fighting fire with fire. And since it would be a combined summoning from all of the Fayth, it would be fortified - like when the final aeon is joined by the summoner's spirit to make it stronger, or more like the souls used to create Sin and Lord Yevon's transformation. Something like that might even be stronger than Yevon."

Valefor considered the idea again. "Do you really think it could work?"

"If it fails, we've lost nothing but a few pyreflies. But if even one real life can be saved, it's worth a try, … don't you think?" The boy became more animated as he planned aloud. "The illusion would have to be someone lots of people remember, so we can fortify it with lots and lots of pyreflies. If we do it right, no one has to know he's not real - not even the illusion himself."

"If he's going to fight Sin and Yevon, he would need to be a good warrior – someone physically strong and able to endure the battles."

"He would need to be persistent, too - someone who won't accept defeat," Bahamut added.

"Someone willing to lay down his life to save everyone else." Valefor shook her head at the impossible combination. "I don't think any of our memories of ordinary people will do. You need a legendary hero. It's too bad we can't create an illusion of Superman. Superman could throw Sin into another galaxy."

Bahamut looked toward the Zanarkand harbor. Only one answer came to mind. "Jecht."

"Jecht? The blitzball player?" She made a slight face. "But he's a blitzball player."

"So? Summoner Ohalland was a blitzball player. So was my sister's guardian, Shuyin. Blitzball players are up to the physical challenge and don't easily accept defeat." Bahamut argued. "That's why Jecht was such a legendary champion. He's probably the biggest hero Zanarkand ever had."

"But ... I never met Jecht, personally. And neither did you. If we don't have personal memories of him, it will be difficult to make him look real."

"I know a Fayth who knew him well." Bahamut smiled at his plan. He was determined to find a way to see it through.

))((

Kaila blinked at the boy in the same stupefied manner that Valefor had. "Have you lost your mind? Jecht bragged a lot about being the best, but I seriously doubt he has what it takes to challenge something like Sin."

"He'd be made of Yevon's own spell, and he wouldn't be a real person. What better way to challenge Yevon than to make him fight his own magic? Nothing else has worked, and nothing's ever going to change if we don't try something different. If we can trick Yunalesca into creating a final aeon with _our_ guardian instead of a real person, the final aeon might be strong enough to defeat Sin _and_ resist Yevon's control."

She quirked a brow, but then looked toward the houseboat with a heavy sigh. "I didn't come here half as much as Koji did. My memories of Jecht are sparse."

"We only need one. Kaila, … everyone knows who Jecht was, but you're the only Fayth we know of who knew him personally enough to make him look real. We need your help getting Jecht out there into reality. We have to at least see if it's possible to mirror Yevon's magic back at him, and I can't think of anyone better suited to challenge him. For Spira's sake, … we have to try."

She nodded and walked onto the houseboat deck. Looking around, she tried to remember more from that beautiful day their families went sailing and deep sea fishing together. On cue, Jecht appeared on the deck, checking the ropes and lines to prepare for the fishing trip as three kids ran circles around him.

"All right enough of that." Jecht attempted to continue his task in spite of the rowdy behavior so close to it. But then one of the noisy little munchkins running around him bumped into him in spite of his warning. Frowning and grumbling to himself, he tied off the last rope and faced them like a ship's captain – which he was. "I said enough! Sit down!"

Immediately, the children froze in place, dropped to the deck, and stared wide-eyed at him.

"That's better. What do you think this is, a zoo? One of you little monkeys go get my bait, and I'll thread your hooks for you. You, ... the blond runt," he said, making all of them giggle, including his son. Little Shuyin jumped up and ran to get the bait bucket.

Bahamut smiled at how innocent Shuyin seemed back then, but then stopped time before the fishing lesson could start. "All we have to do is find the moment that Jecht disappeared and prevent that from happening, so we can send him to a summoner instead."

"But Jecht is the only one who would know what really happened," Kaila reminded him.

"Unless he's unsent, his memories should be cataloged in here with everyone else's by now. We just have to find them."

Easier said than done. Kaila and Bahamut sat on the deck of the houseboat and sifted through time flow after time flow watching memories of every visitor or family member that came to the houseboat, until they came to one startling time flow that involved Jecht coming out of the front door, alone and in an a very foul mood. He was carrying a six-pack of his favorite brew and stopped to grab one of the blitzballs from a bunch lined up on the side of the deck. Then, he stormed to a smaller boat roped a short distance from the larger one.

"I think we just found it," Kaila sadly remarked, as they watched him row away. "I wonder what happened to upset him so much?"

Bahamut leaped from the deck, landing softly on one end of the boat to stay with Jecht. "We can't let him disappear this time," he called back to Kaila.

Kaila floated behind them until she could perch on the side of the boat, unafraid that her presence might tip it. "We could become visible to him and just ask him to do this for us, you know."

The boy's expression flattened. "Do you honestly think he'd agree to go to another world and banish a monster that no one has been able to defeat in over nine hundred years?"

She frowned and scratched her head in defeat. "But it feels … weird, you know?"

"He's not real," Bahamut reminded her. "And Jecht disappeared on his family anyway, so it's not like we're taking him away from them."

"I know, but ... we're still pushing him into a reality he knows nothing about. Regardless of whatever happened to him the day he disappeared, he's been dead for over nine hundred years now. Spira will be a completely different world to him once he's beyond Dream Zanarkand."

"Ripples diverge from what they remember anyway. This is no different from altering an illusion that's going to stay in the dream."

"It's very different, Bahamut. He'll be living beyond his memories _after _he's made real. In the dream, we can wipe the slate clean and restart as many times as we want because it won't change anything that's already happened. But out there, the future hasn't been written yet – and we're throwing him into it. It's giving him a real life again after he's been dead for centuries."

He had not considered that. "But he's just a memory. Memories never lived in the first place, so they never really died either. He'll be an illusion – nothing more. The only difference between this ripple and the others is that this one has a chance to make a real difference to someone out there."

"You mean it has a chance to make a lot of _real_ ripples," Kaila corrected him, worrying a little about the consequences. "Lots and lots of ripples."

Jecht finally stopped rowing along an isolated spot of beach. He hopped out into the water and dragged the boat half up on the sand, then pulled out his beer and his blitzball. He was already quite drunk, but the first thing he did was sit down in the sand and drink another can of beer while staring out at sea. Something was really bothering the man, but he kept it bottled inside of him, which only made him feel worse.

"Stay with him," Bahamut told Kaila. "Stop time before he does anything stupid, and I'll be right back. We need more pyreflies if this is going to work." Bahamut flew back to Mt. Gagazet.

))((

Valefor had already rounded up the rest of the Fayth for the mission. "They've all agreed to help!" she eagerly announced.

A strong young man with short ginger hair came forward from the crowd. He bore a helmet under one arm and was dressed in the armor of a Crusader from the Kilika temple. "Bahamut," Ifrit warmly greeted him. "Are you sure this will work?"

"No," the boy admitted. "But it's worth a try."

"What steps have you taken to assure that Jecht's illusion will do the task you are sending him to do? Remember you cannot edit reality the way you can the memories within this dream. If Jecht's illusion manages to survive the transfer, he might create problems out there that you can't erase."

"There is always a risk when trying something never done before. But we must try."

A hooded woman in temple priestess attire joined them. "You can guide him to his summoner, but after that, you will have to leave matters in their hands." Shiva had once studied as a summoner at the temple of Macalania. "Because of the nature of the sacrifice to become the Final Aeon, the summoner may choose from the other guardians. If Jecht is chosen, he must fight Sin of his own free will, but you must understand that he may choose not to. However, if you are resolved and willing to take responsibility for his actions, we will help."

Bahamut nodded, realizing this was a grave responsibility. Then, he led them back to the spot where Jecht spent his final moments - where Kaila had been watching the blitz player practice. "Has he done anything yet?"

Kaila gave him a bored expression. "He's almost finished his last beer, if that's what you mean. I know Shuyin complained about his drinking quite a bit, but … I had no idea it was this bad," her boredom changed to sympathy. "I remember rumors that he drowned because he was drunk. People said it didn't make sense otherwise for a blitzball player to drown. Koji shouldn't have drowned either, but I guess sometimes it's the things we take for granted that defeat us in the end." Lifting her chin to Bahamut, she saw the other Fayth standing with him and knew it was time. Standing from her vigil in the sand, she joined them.

The boy stopped time for Jecht's illusion, then turned to the rest of the Fayth that had followed him. The gathered spirits all knew of Jecht in some way or another and poured their memories into the illusion that Kaila had summoned and followed through the flow. Concentrating the magic of the dream into the illusion, they fortified Jecht with enough pyreflies to make him substantially different from any other illusion in the dream. Most illusions were empty exterior shells, but Jecht was given the internal design of a real human. He was still nothing but an illusion, but now he could react to the real world based on his perceptions, rather than just memory or pattern. He could thirst, feel pain, … even bleed. But would it be enough to make him seem real out there?

"Now, all we need to do is get him to a summoner. I nominate Lord Braska," Bahamut announced. "He fell out of favor with the temple because of his Al Bhed wife, but then lost her to Sin. He's not out for revenge, but wants to help others avoid his suffering. He's wise and compassionate. His choices show he is fair and forgiving, and his magic is strong. I'm his only aeon at the moment because he's still in Bevelle finalizing his personal affairs before beginning the journey to meet the rest of you. But I think he's strong enough to make it here to Zanarkand for the Final Summoning."

"So, how do we get Braska to summon Jecht if he doesn't know he exists?" Ifrit asked.

"Sin," Bahamut answered, drawing more than a few murmurs from the gathered Fayth. "Sin is the only aeon that can freely come and go between dimensions."

Ixion the sailor came forward and crouched before the boy a stern expression. "Sin was designed to solidify feelings into real manifestations - to use those feelings to create spawn and cast very destructive magic. If Jecht's illusion touches Sin, maybe it will be enough to anchor him to reality, even if it does not make him real. But, in doing so, we may lose him. In other words, it's the equivalent of sending a fiend among them, … like an unsent. If he harms Spira, you must be prepared to destroy him."

Bahamut nodded. "I will watch over him closely and try to prevent harm."

Ixion straightened. "Then you may begin."

With that blessing from the rest of the Fayth, Bahamut opened his eyes to leave the dream and was once more sitting in silent meditation over his tomb in the Bevelle temple. Bursting up through the ceiling and floor levels above his chamber, he went straight through a back wall into the streets of Bevelle. Then, he ran toward the docks, passing through people rather than taking the time to go around them. Once he made it to the pier, he sat down and waited. Timing had to be perfect.

))((

As a spirit, Bahamut felt no need for food or rest. He sat for what seemed like endless days watching the coast of Bevelle, waiting for Sin's inevitable swim-by arrival. Eventually, he was rewarded with the sight of the large shell lurking along the horizon of the ocean. While still sitting on the pier, Bahamut closed his eyes and sent his mind into the dream once more. He enjoyed being able to split his presence between two places at the same time like this, as being a spirit gave him definite advantages over a physical body when it came to travel.

"Sin has arrived in Bevelle," he spoke to Kaila, who still sat on the beach slightly beyond Zanarkand's harbor. Most of the other Fayth had slipped away to tend to the dream or sleep, though a few still watched from afar.

"Have you found Lord Braska?" she asked.

"He's getting ready to travel south, but he's concerned about his daughter's welfare," he told her. "He will not begin his journey until he is certain she has a suitable guardian. His heart is heavy these days, and I think his daughter is beginning to suspect the reason why."

"I'm sure Jecht will do all that he can once he learns what's at stake," Kaila assured him. "That's the kind of man he was when game play was at sudden death."

Bahamut nodded and opened his eyes to leave the dream. Then, he stood and flew through the city toward the home of his summoner. When he found him, Braska was sitting at his desk, mulling over papers concerning his daughter's legal guardianship. Bahamut walked to his side and strained to gather more pyreflies to his ghostly form to reveal himself to his summoner.

In his peripheral vision, Braska could see a child standing at his elbow. "What is it, Yuna?" he asked with a tired, but gentle tone, still scanning pages, rather than turning to look directly at the child.

"Come." It was difficult to gain presence strong enough to appear and speak before the living, so Bahamut kept his communication to the point.

That was not his daughter's voice. Braska looked up from his papers and was surprised to see the boy's spirit waiting on him. "Bahamut. You don't usually present yourself away from your tomb. Something urgent needs my attention?"

"Dock number three," the boy told him, then ran through the wall of the house to arrive at that location before him.

))((

Braska didn't hesitate to stand and follow. "Auron! Yuna!" he called toward the back of his home as he grabbed his temple robes to pull on over his casual attire and headed for the front door.

Aruon, his friend and guardian, came into the front hall from the kitchen. He had been making himself a hot drink and cautiously sipped it now. "Trouble?"

Braska supposed he did look very troubled. "Bahamut just appeared and bid me to go to the docks. A Fayth showing up in my house can't be good news, can it?" He looked to the top of the stairs where his seven-year-old daughter stood. "Nana isn't in today, Yuna, and I can't let you stay here all alone. You'll have to come with us, but I want you to stay far back if any fiends are present. And you must obey me without question if I tell you to run. Do you understand?"

"Mh." The little, brown-haired girl bobbed her head a few times, then hopped down the stairs and clasped her father's hand. Auron was reluctant to set down his steaming mug, but when Braska's daughter smiled at him with her unusual two-toned eyes, he sighed and surrendered the drink to join them. Yuna walked between the two men down to the docks. She felt completely secure in their capable hands.

))((

Down at the pier, Bahamut's spirit seated himself facing the ocean, ... and Sin. No longer visible to the real world, the ghostly boy closed his eyes and re-entered the dream to stand beside Kaila on the beach. "Braska's on his way. It's time."

"Let's hope this works!" Kaila crossed her fingers and started to unfreeze time.

"Wait." Bahamut created a sword and placed it on Jecht's back. "We can't send him out there without a way to defend himself." Satisfied that they had done all they could, the boy unfroze time to let their experiment proceed. He watched silently as the illusion of Jecht that the Fayth had worked so hard to make _real_ waded into the ocean and began to practice his famous shots. Eventually, Jecht did slip under the water. Both spirits watching over him gasped and ran into the water, but then were surprised when he resurfaced.

"What?" Kaila stopped time. "He's not supposed to come back up. Something has broken the pattern." She tried hard to think of what might have made the difference resulting in his death. "Wait. Koji died after a fiend attacked him. Do you suppose Jecht was attacked by a fiend, too? If so, Yevon has removed all fiends from the dream. We can't let Jecht survive and go home. That will ruin everything."

"But we don't want the illusion to die, so this is just as well. Jecht needs a different kind of fiend - one that can take him out of here." Bahamut drew an illusionary copy of Sin into the dream Zanarkand, sitting in the water not far from where Jecht stood. Then, he unfroze time, hoping curiosity would take its natural course.

Jecht was surprised to find himself suddenly in the presence of a sleeping monster. "What the ...?" He drew back, thinking his drunkenness was beginning to play tricks on his mind. He rubbed his eyes, blinked, and rubbed them again, but the whale-like monster remained. "Damn, that's a big fish."

The fact that he was surprised was equally surprising for the Fayth. "He knows it wasn't there before," Bahamut noted, astonished. Usually the illusions showed no reaction to people and things suddenly changing in their vicinity – like when Kaila erased Koji from Shuyin's intended tackle, but Shuyin never noticed. "He remembers what happened before we stopped time."

"Because he has no pattern to follow anymore," Kaila realized, afraid and awed at the same time for what they had created. "His behavior pattern ended when the real Jecht died. This illusion existing now is no longer a memory, Bahamut. We've created something totally different." She looked to him with worry. "Are you sure we didn't bring him back to life?"

"He has no soul, Kaila. He's still just an illusion," he assured her. "Keep an eye on him. Make sure he goes out to sea. Make sure he touches Sin."

"But … Sin's just an illusion, too."

"Not on the other side." Bahamut opened his eyes. Back in Bevelle, he leaped from the pier and ran across the water toward the real Sin. Sensing the approaching Fayth, an instinctive alarm went off with Sin and it turned to swim away.

Within the dream Zanarkand, however, the illusionary Sin continued to sleep its consolatory sleep. When the monster didn't move, Jecht's curiosity got the better of him. Grabbing the edge of his boat, he jerked it free from the sand and pushed it back into the water, keeping it between himself and the monster, as if it were some kind of shield. Slowly, cautiously, he approached Sin.

The magical toxin that surrounded Sin was insanely uncomfortable to Bahamut as he thrust his hands against the shell, but the boy's transformed existence as a Fayth, and the seal over his far-away tomb protected him from being drawn within the sworling hate and despair the flooded his mind. Hanging onto his sanity and the magic that surrounded the shell, since he was not material enough to grasp the shell itself, he closed his eyes to enter the dream once more, using the real Sin to temporarily dissolve the boundary between what was real and what was not.

Within the dream, Jecht reached for the strange beast, but his hand passed right through the illusionary Sin, continuing through Bahamut's unseen Fayth, who rippled the dream to touch the real Sin. The moment Jecht touched the toxin, the pyrefly particles in his hand solidified, and he was drawn from the dream into reality. He cried out in surprised fear at seeing his arm distort as it passed through the dimensions, but there was nothing he could do now to stop the rest of his body from being pulled all the way through.

When Jecht had disappeared completely from the dream, Bahamut opened his eyes again, in time to see his illusion splash solidly into the real ocean below him. Excited to see the splash and eager to see if his theory worked, Bahamut released his grip on Sin, disconnecting the dream from reality. Diving under the water, he tried to catch his illusion, but Jecht's body passed right through the boy's ghostly hands. The illusion magic had solidified, just like that of an aeon. Bahamut grinned and spun in the water. He couldn't wait to tell the others that it worked! Success was short-lived, however, when he realized the drunken blitzball legend was in danger of drowning a second time. Straining to gather pyreflies, he revealed his presence in the water beside him. "Don't give up! Keep swimming! You have to get to the shore!"

))((

Jecht, half-drowned and still very drunk, was startled again, but this time at seeing a chid's ghost under water with him. Thinking his son had somehow followed him to a watery grave, he immediately shot toward the surface and floundered in the large waves caused by the giant aeon.

Treading water, he tried to get a grip on his senses. He was hallucinating. He had to be. But when he looked behind him, the giant "fish" was still there. It was swimming away from him, but had been spooked by the contact and was on the defensive. The ghost-child telling him to swim for the shore had been motivation enough, but now pods shot into the water from the colossal creature's shell and opened into man-sized, blue fiends. Muttering a string of curses, Jecht turned and swam as fast as he could toward the shore, knowing his life depended on it.

))((

"There!" Auron pointed to Sin's movement off the shore and shouldered his sword, ready for a fight. Sin was leaving, but its spawn were quickly heading their way.

Braska drew his staff and flashed his daughter a look of warning. "Yuna, go back to the city wall and stay there!"

Frightened, the small girl ran away from the piers and stood a safe distance away from the hissing and flickering swarm of blue Sin spawn approaching land.

Jecht ducked under the pier in attempt to hide and drew his sword. He swiped at a few of the spawn that came after him, but the rest of the spawn ignored him and headed for the other humans above the docks.

Auron and Braska ran toward the spawn that were attacking the men working on the docks and put themselves between the dock workers and the threat. Auron sliced at any spawn that came toward them, while Braska drew the magical glyphs that would summon his only aeon. "Bahamut, thank you for warning us that Sin was at our back door."

Expecting they would need his aid fighting the swarm, Bahamut's spirit faded from the water near Jecht and materialized before his summoner in his black dragon form. He rushed toward the oncoming threat and his sheer, brute strength made short work of the fiends that were picking off dock workers. The individual spawn weren't difficult to defeat, but their numbers made the battle chaotic until the last one went down.

When they had things back under control, he bowed before his summoner and was dismissed. Back in spirit form, Bahamut ran across the water to where Jecht was. The first part of their plan had been successfully accomplished, but without the second part, it wouldn't mean anything.

Jecht crawled onto the shore some distance away from the core of the fight just as the city guards were arriving on the scene. Coming out of the water, he stumbled and fell. Catching his breath from the fight and the swim, he was still trying to absorb the whole shock of what had happened to him.

Bahamut decided to materialize before him once more. "You were drowning."

"I wasn't drowning," Jecht defensively answered the boy's blunt observation. "I know how to swim better than anyone. It's just a_ little difficult_ when I've got man-eating insects swarming after me!" He looked up with a wince and found himself facing the same boy that had mysteriously appeared to him in the water. "You're not my kid. Who are you?"

Bahamut smiled, pleased that Jecht had made it this far. "You have to talk to Braska."

"Who?"

Bahamut faded as the guards rushed to Jecht and scooped him up by his arms.

"Where'd the kid go?" Jecht looked around.

"What kid?"

"The kid that was just here talking to me!"

"Did the Sin spawn hurt you?" one of the guards asked.

Jecht tried to focus. "What's a Spin Sawn?"

The guard holding him sighed to the other with disgust. "He's not hurt. He's drunk." Then, he looked back to Jecht. "All right, what's your name?"

Jecht laughed. "Trick question, right?"

"He probably can't remember. He was out there swimming around Sin's toxin," the first guard said to the other, making a loopy sign at the side of his head.

Jecht took offense. "I'm not crazy, you moron. I know who I am. I'm Jecht." When neither of them seemed awed with recognition, he frowned. "Abes' MVP for the last several _years_? You know, I don't think I'm the only one tippin' back a few around here." He made a drinking gesture with his fingers, then straightened and looked at the red walls facing the docks. "Where is here, anyway?" he swayed back slightly.

"Bevelle."

"What? There's no way I swam from Zanarkand to Bevelle in the blink of a eye."

"Zanarkand?" The two guards looked at each other and laughed. "Alcohol and Sin's toxin are an ugly mix," one joked to the other. "Okay, Jecht from Zanarkand, let's get you a nice comfy cell where you can sleep it off." He took Jecht's arm and attempted to lead him away.

Jecht didn't like being handled by the guard and tried to pull away from him. "Oh, hell no! I _know_ you're not taking me to jail on top of what I've just been through with that thing! I'm leaving this crazy-ass beach and going home!" Jecht struggled to pull free again, but that only made them tighten their hold and him - which, of course, made Jecht try harder to pull free. A small scuffle ensued.

Bahamut smiled in amusement at Jecht's stubborn reaction. He had never met the man, but he could imagine Shuyin doing the same thing. Leaving the drunken blitzball player to argue with the Bevelle guards, the boy ran back to where Braska stood.

"While the temple may no longer recognize you, we're grateful for your help, Lord Braska. I'm sorry we didn't get here in time," one of the guards finished speaking to him.

"Well, I had a bit of a heads-up that Sin was here." Braska glanced at the drunken man being dragged away. "What was that all about?" he asked, when one of the guards that had struggled with Jecht joined them.

"It's about one too many beers, that's what." Auron snorted and sheathed his sword.

"Some drunk, says he's from Zanarkand." The guard waved him off.

"Zanarkand?" Braska looked to Auron, with obvious interest. "Perhaps providence has sent us a tour guide," he joked, mildly amused.

"You mean a bar guide." Auron frowned slightly. "No one could live among those ruins."

Braska turned back to face the guard. "What's his name?"

"Jecht. You know him?" The guard hoped he'd found someone to take him off of their hands.

"No, but … I'll be heading to Zanarkand soon." Braska was intrigued by the coincidence. "I'd like to talk to him." He saw that Auron wasn't impressed by his whim to interview the drunk, but the guardian's skeptical expression only made the summoner smile. Once more, he summoned his mighty aeon to rejoin them, and Bahamut was brought back in his dragon form before them. "Bahamut, please stay here with Yuna. We'll only be gone a few minutes," he instructed before they walked away.

"Bahamut." Yuna smiled at the black dragon as it approached her. Without fear, the girl reached a small hand to stroke his ebony scales, as he folded his wings and sat down beside her.

The aeon smiled to himself, pleased with the way their plan had come together against the odds. His eyes drifted to the child happily sitting in the shade of his shadow, and his heart went out to her knowing she would be orphaned if Braska completed his pilgrimage to Zanarkand. But if Jecht could defeat Sin _and_ Yevon, maybe Braska could come home to his daughter in the end. If she could grow up in a world free from Sin, then the Fayth's gift to her father would be worth the trouble.


	28. Chapter 28: Company of Three

Chapter 28: Company of Three

In the Bevelle temple's confinement chamber for lesser offenders, in one of the ground-level cages, Braska found the shirtless, shoeless stranger who called himself Jecht. The gentle-mannered summoner introduced himself and offered to have him released if he would agree to accompany them to Zanarkand, since that is where he claimed to be from. Auron protested and called him a drunk. Jecht heartily agreed to the offer, looking forward to going home, while enjoying the opportunity to defy the young man who insulted him.

The temple guard shook his head at the summoner's strange decision as he unlocked Jecht's cell. After returning the confiscated longsword, he led them up and out of the prison into the temple proper before bowing to the lord summoner and leaving them to their business.

Jecht's first question upon being freed had been to ask what a "summerner" was. His ignorance about something so central to modern Spira's culture drew another look of disapproval from the man named Auron, but Braska had chuckled in amusement. He had met Auron some time ago and was impressed by the warrior monk's diligence and respect, but the younger man still addressed him by his formal title, since that was how they interacted at the temple. Braska was used to being treated with a certain level of formality by most of the people around him, so he found Jecht's unpretentious mannerisms to be a humorous and refreshing change. "I summon aeons and white magic and send the souls of the dead to rest on the Farplane," he explained as he led the way out of the temple.

"Oh. Like white mages. Strange place you got here if people know how to send dead souls, but don't have a clue about blitzball."

"You play blitzball?"

"Do fish swim? Current and long-standing MVP for the Abes. If this had been Zanarkand, I could have walked out of that cage on a autograph and a promise for season tickets." Jecht's fame at home was such a part of him, that he didn't think twice about making that statement.

Auron frowned at the egotistical boast. "Lord Braska is well-known for his missions and diplomatic efforts with the Al Bhed when he was a priest, and now he is undertaking a pilgrimage to defeat Sin. If not for him, you'd still be stuck in that cage."

Braska smiled with mild humility at his guardian's defense. "Those missions were hardly successful, considering how things turned out. And the people of Zanarkand probably have no need to be familiar with my excursions to Bikanel."

The guardian quirked a brow. "_People of Zanarkand_? But, sir, he can't possibly be from -"

"We have not been to Zanarkand, yet, Auron," Braska reminded him, tucking his hands within his voluminous sleeves. "We are in no position to say what's possible or impossible for someone else. Perhaps things are different from what we've heard."

Jecht grinned at the younger man's obvious frustration with his presence and folded his arms across the large, tattooed Abes symbol on his chest. "What are you supposed to be, anyway? Are you a summerner, too?"

Auron was annoyed at the tone of the question and the ignorance behind it, but kept his manners for Braska's sake. "I was a warrior monk."

"Was?" Jecht caught the past tense. "Oh, that's right. Braska said something in the prison about them cutting you loose because you refused to marry someone. I always thought monks shaved their heads and vowed to abstain from that sort of thing, … and anything else that's fun." He paused and studied him in brief consideration. "Hm, actually, that would explain a lot about you."

In answer to the first assumption, Auron pressed his lips together and pulled his long, black ponytail from beneath the neck of his red haori. "A monk disciplines every aspect of his being," he explained in answer to the second. "If the body is disciplined, the mind will follow. Don't pollute that by reading more into it than what it is."

Jecht smirked. "In other words, either your bride-to-be was a dog, or your preferences don't lean toward women."

Auron leaned across Braska's path to scowl at the scruffy, crude-mannered blitz player. "Ever heard of something called _love_?"

"Love … I love blitzball. I love beer. I love weekends. And my wife and I fell in love about ten years ago, and she's been with me ever since." The gruff man grew uncharacteristically quiet.

"Then she must have the patience of an angel and eyesight of a bat," Auron muttered.

"Hey, now, you watch what you say about my wife." Jecht became defensive, even though he had argued with her before coming here. "Dannae is the kindest, most beautiful soul you ever laid eyes on."

"My apologies to _her_, then." Auron withdrew the remark, ... sorta. "I didn't love the woman they wanted me to marry. It would not have been an honorable decision for either of us, so I gave up my promotion and accepted Lord Braska's invitation to be his guardian, instead. And Lord Braska forfeited his position in the temple because they _didn't_ want him to marry the woman he loved. Some things are more important than promotion and status." His eyes shifted sidelong toward the other man, but then he held his tongue before he risked further disrespecting Braska's decision to include him.

"My diplomatic efforts with the Al Bhed fell apart when I fell in love with my wife," Braska further explained to his new guardian, thinking it was important that they know about each others' backgrounds. "In the temple's eyes, I had married a heathen heretic. In the Al Bhed's eyes, my wife had betrayed her own people for one of their persecutors. The fallout was not pleasant. But I have no regrets, and neither did she. She continued to try to communicate with her family, and was on her way to see them when Sin attacked her airship. Airships and other machina are forbidden."

"Sin … " Jecht rubbed the back of his neck as he remembered the babble of the guard that arrested him. "That big fish that attacked the docks? That thing flies?" He considered the size of the monster and the kind of damage something like that could do to an airship.

"Fish ..." Auron shook his head and leaned his back against the wall, barely able to contain his disbelief that Braska would even consider dragging along this drunken fool.

"That was Sin," Braska confirmed, but became puzzled. If Jecht didn't know what Sin was, that was even more odd than his claim about his origins. "That _fish_ killed my wife. And it has killed countless other people on Spira since the Machina War."

"The what?" Jecht was confused. "There was a war?"

Braska and Auron exchanged uneasy glances. "Sin purges machina to prevent war from ever happening again, but its punishments are relentless – devastating," Braska patiently explained. "That is why we must try to defeat it."

"You're going to try to fight that thing? Why not just fight it here?"

"Sin is too strong for ordinary aeons. To fight Sin, we must find the strongest aeon in Spira – the Final Aeon. But it's located in Zanarkand."

"What's an aeon?" Now Jecht really seemed lost.

"An aeon is the physical manifestation of a spirit summoned to aid us in battle against fiends."

"Aeon, huh? Never heard of it. Then again, I never heard of summerners either."

Auron gritted his teeth at the continued mispronunciation of the word and cast Braska one more look of doubt, as if it still wasn't too late to change his mind about having him join them.

))((

When they finally reached the city wall where Braska had left Yuna, Jecht saw the black dragon aeon for the first time. His shock and fear made him stop and draw back, until he saw the little girl sitting under its wing. Then, he snarled and grabbed his sword. "We gotta help her!"

Auron grabbed his wrist to interrupt the attack before it could begin. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Braska chuckled at the blitzball player's reaction as he continued forward. "Jecht, this is Bahamut – the aeon from the Bevelle temple. He's here at my request, watching over my daughter in my absence." Braska invited Jecht to come and meet the dragon. Yuna popped up from where she was nestled beneath the dragon's wing and ran to her father's side. The dragon made no move to rise, but bowed his head in greeting as the summoner and his guardians approached. Braska smiled at his daughter and set a hand on her head as she smiled back up at him. "As you can see, he is friendly, and my daughter is unharmed."

Jecht gave Auron a dirty look for seizing his arm like that, but then released his sword hilt and looked at the dragon with skepticism.

"Bahamut, Yuna, … this is Sir Jecht. He says he is from Zanarkand, so I've invited him to join our pilgrimage as my new guardian."

Bahamut bowed his head again as a noise that sounded like a purr rumbled in his throat to let Jecht know he had nothing to fear. Yuna gave a short curtsy to the stranger, smiled at the purr, and gave the large creature's supple scales a few pats. Jecht started to touch the aeon, too, but then changed his mind and jerked his hand back. "Uh, ... this won't suck me into a whole 'nother place will it? 'Cause that last thing I touched dumped me here."

"Bahamut won't hurt you," Yuna told him.

Jecht snorted at the formal title Braska gave him. Then, not to be upstaged by a little girl, he reached again to pat the aeon's neck like she was doing. "You're not afraid of this big ol' dragon?"

Yuna smiled bashfully and half-hid behind her father's robes before shaking her head.

Jecht stopped petting the aeon and bent his hands to his knees, so that he was eye-level with her. "Hm, … how old are you?"

"Seven."

"I have a son your age. He'd probably think it's pretty cool to pet a dragon. I think he'd be scared of it, though. You're braver than he is. Taller, too. He's kinda scrawny." He gave her a friendly wink and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Yuna."

She grinned and let him shake her small hand.

Braska glanced to Auron with a worried expression, then addressed the blitzball player. "You have ... a young son?"

"Yep." Jecht straightened with a proud grin. "Quite a handful, too - all over the place and into everything that isn't nailed down. That kid's going to turn every hair on my head gray before I hit forty, but … he's a good kid. It gotta get back to him and my wife."

Braska didn't know what to say. An entire family living in the Zanarkand ruins? "It seems we are not the only ones who have urgent reasons for taking this journey, then."

))((

Auron went to the table by the front door and picked up his drink that he never actually got to _drink_ before being called away to the docks. It was cold now, of course, so he took it to the kitchen and set it on the range's magical hot plate to warm it again. As he waited, he removed his red coat and draped it over the side of a chair at the table where Braska and Jecht sat talking.

Braska had been asking questions to find out more about Zanarkand, but Jecht's answers were bewildering and a little more than disturbing. Still, he tried not to let his concern show as such until he could figure out what was going on. Braska stood from the table and removed his elaborate headdress allowing his neatly tucked brown hair and mildly irritated neck to breathe. Setting it aside, he removed the heavy robe of his former office as well and draped it over a chair. The lighter, looser fabric of the kimono and hakama he wore underneath allowed him to move more freely in his own home. "The way you describe it, everything sounds as if the city was alive and well."

"Well, ... why wouldn't it be?" Jecht asked.

Braska wondered if they should tell him the place was supposed to be in ruins. Grabbing a sash, he put one end between his teeth and looped it around each arm to hold back the sleeves of the kimono. Then, after tying the sash's ends, he pulled a few items from the cupboards and began to prepare dinner. "What do you think, Auron?"

"I think he still needs to sober up." Auron lifted his mug from the hot plate and tasted the drink to see if it was warm enough yet.

Jecht became defensive. "You know, you're one to talk about my drinking habits when you're walking around with that big jug hanging on your hip." Jecht pointed to Auron's belt. "What'cha got in there? Bet it ain't apple juice."

Auron's expression flattened. "It's nog. I use it in fights sometimes, and it's a reminder to exercise self-discipline all other times."

"What's that supposed to mean? I got self-discipline."

"Is that why you were arrested for drunken disorder?"

"I don't normally drink that heavy."

"Then why do it this time?"

"It's, ... personal." He scratched his head and shrugged it off, not wanting to talk about it. Instead, he turned his attention to Braska, who was certainly the more friendly and relaxed of the two men, in spite of the fact that his manner of dress, his large home, and the way others addressed him pointed toward official or inherited nobility. "You do your own cooking? I figured a fancy-shmancy person like you would have servants around here to do that sort of thing for you."

Braska smiled as he chopped vegetables. "You're half right. I have a tutor and a nanny to help care for Yuna, and I have various other people who show up once a week to help take care of the house and grounds when I'm away." He paused for a moment. "My wife was a rather hands-on kind of woman, though, so she insisted on doing most of the work around here herself. It comes from being an Al Bhed, I suppose. Said she didn't need help. In fact, if I tinkered with things too much, she'd tell me to go back to the temple before I broke something. But I could cook better than her, at least." He sniffled, and his eyes started to water, so that he had to put down the knife and lift a dish towel to dry them. When he looked up from his work, he realized both of the other men were giving him oddly sympathetic stares. "Onions," he explained, humored at their assumptions as he held up the quarter that remained of the offending vegetable.

"Oh, right, onions ..." Jecht nodded in understanding.

"Jecht, could you please tell Yuna it's time to wash up for dinner," he requested, rinsing and drying his hands. "She's probably playing in the garden out back."

"No problem."

))((

Jecht found the small girl bouncing a blitzball in the garden directly behind the kitchen as her father suspected. She was an only child, like his son, and watching her play by herself brought back thoughts of him as Jecht stepped outside to give her the message.

"Fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four ..." Yuna counted the number of times that she caught her ball as she bounced it on the brick pathway that wound through the lush flowers and ornamental grasses.

"That's not how you play blitzball." Jecht came to a stop beside her.

Yuna caught the ball and stopped her game. "I wasn't playing blitzball," she politely answered.

"But that's a blitzball." He tapped the large, round thing in her arms.

"I know." Her expression fell slightly in shame. "But ... I can't swim."

Jecht tried not to chuckle at her confession and rubbed his chin thoughtfully instead. "I see. Well, swimming's easy to learn. My boy learned real fast after I threw him in the water. Got a pool around here? I could throw you in the water, too."

She shook her head with a slightly worried expression. "No, thank you."

Jecht laughed at how polar opposite this dainty little thing was from the headstrong child he was used to. "That's not what he said. He said, 'I don't want to!' And he made a grumpy face like this." He imitated his memory of the event. "And then he hid behind me. But you - you're not even afraid of a dragon, so why are you afraid of water? And, you don't even need it. You can play blitzball on the ground like any other ball game. That's how I got him started."

"But, ... it's hard to play it alone."

"Hm, you got a point there. You could ask your dad to play some blitzball with you."

Yuna put a hand to her mouth and giggled at the idea.

"Heh. You're right. Bad idea. He's almost as prissy as you are."

"Do you play blitzball with your son?" she asked.

"All the time. Or, … at least I used to when I had the time. I'm a professional player, you know, ... back in Zanarkand. He tries to copy my shots, but he's not very good at them. My shots are difficult, though. I guess he's got guts to even be trying them," he admitted.

"May I see one of your shots?"

"You may, My Lady." With a formal bow that didn't suit his personality at all, but made her giggle again, Jecht lifted the blitzball from her hands. "I'll show you one that I invented myself. It's legendary now. No one else can do it but me. I call it the Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III! Remember that name, kid, because this shot's going down in history."

Yuna blinked with astonishment at the impressive name. "Sub-lime-ly ... Mag-ni-fi-cent ..."

"Jecht Shot Mark III," he helped her. Then, he backed up and looked for a place to rebound the shot. The stone statue in the garden might do the trick, though the uneven surface could be a challenge for aiming it. Volleying the ball until he was able to slam it against the statue, he jumped up, spun, and kicked it.

Yuna gasped open-mouthed at the magnificent stunt, but then gasped again even louder when it shattered the kitchen window. The girl ran to the window and peered through the broken glass to see both her father and Auron giving them severe frowns. Then, she winced and turned to face the blitzball player. "I think, you're in big trouble," she apologetically informed him.

Jecht's mouth quirked as he scratched lightly at the beard scruff under his chin. "Hm, you might be right about that."

))((

Jecht bought some memory spheres before leaving on their journey, thinking it would make a great way to show his family where he had been while he was missing from Zanarkand. Though Auron thought it was inappropriate for him to bring such a thing along for the sacred occasion, Braska agreed that this would be a nice gift for their children.

Jecht began recording their journey from their final trip to the Bevelle temple south into the lake region of Macalania Temple. There, Braska prayed to the Fayth of Shiva and received his second aeon. After staying at Rin's Travel Agency that night, they hiked through Macalania Woods the following day. When nightfall came again, they were still trying to find their way out of the meandering, forest labyrinth, until they finally found their way to the spring and stopped to make camp.

"Rations are low," Auron reported, checking their supplies. "We should supplement them." Lifting his chin, he looked around. "A forest like this should have something to forage or hunt, right?"

"Jecht, if you'll stay here and finish setting up the camp, Auron and I can hunt something for dinner," Braska suggested.

Jecht couldn't imagine Baska playing huntsman, but he nodded in agreement as he set up his tent. "Hey, uh, ... I've been thinking." Standing from his crouched position, he dropped the mallot with the other tent supplies and dusted the dirt from his hands. "You said this was a dangerous trip, right? And we've already met our share of fiends coming this far." He paused, troubled by his own thoughts. "If I don't make it back to my wife and kid, ... would you be sure that they get these spheres? So they know that I didn't just walk out on them, or anything like that."

Braska looked to Auron, who kept silent on the matter but wore a grave expression. The summoner seemed troubled, too, for a moment, but then offered an apologetic smile to Jecht's request. "As much as I would love to, I can't make that promise. Survival rate after the Final Summoning isn't ... very high," he admitted, though that was an understatement. "None of the summoners that make it as far as the Final Summoning have ever come back. That's why people are afraid to venture into the ruins and why we know so little about the place. The Zanarkand that we know was destroyed almost a thousand years ago in a terrible war with Bevelle. Sin has punished Spira ever since."

Jecht was stunned and skeptical. "What?" He snorted in amusement thinking it was a joke, but when neither of their solemn expressions changed, he slowly realized they were serious. "This … is Spira's _future_? I time-traveled or something? That's impossible."

"And yet here you are," Braska reminded him. "I don't know what to make of it, either. You understand now why I am so intrigued about your origins, … and why I think we can help each other. The Zanarkand ruins are said to be haunted by some of the worst fiends on Spira, so only summoners and their guardians dare to tread there. And they go only when it necessary to confront Sin's destruction so the rest of Spira will have a period of Calm. No one has been able to keep Sin from returning yet, but if everyone would adhere to Yevon's laws, and if the summoner and his Final Aeon are strong enough, … maybe someday the Calm will be eternal."

Unable to grasp what that meant in terms of how he came to be here, the blitzball player shook his head in disbelief and paced lightly as he tried to absorb all the strange things he had seen and heard since being pulled away from the Zanarkand beach. "But … all I did was touch that big fish thing and … next thing I knew I was here. How do I get home?"

"I don't know how to help you return to your own time, but if we can find a way, I promise I will do all that I can to help. I asked you to come with us because I was hoping your knowledge of the ruins would offer some advantage previous summoners missed, but I will not ask you to walk the path I have chosen for the Final Summoning. You have a family to return to – a son who needs you."

"And you have a daughter that needs you." Jecht frowned. "What about Little Yuna?"

"Nana will take care of her until Auron can come back for her. If Auron does not return, I've left her legal custody in the hands of her Al Bhed uncle. He didn't approve of his sister's choice in marrying me, but … Cid's a good man. I know he won't shut Yuna out if he knows she has no other family for refuge."

"How can you even talk about it like that?" Jecht became irritated and angry at how calm Braska was about the whole bizarre situation. "You don't just go wandering off on some suicide mission and leave your little girl behind! Everyone needs to escape to let off steam once in a while, but … I could never leave my boy on his own like that. I never meant to leave them like this!"

"Jecht, … if Sin isn't challenged and pushed back by someone, it will come for our children. It broke my heart to leave my daughter behind, but I don't want her to have to follow in my footsteps, if there is something I can do to prevent it. And if Sin is what brought you here from your Zanarkand, then your son is not safe, either."

Jecht gave Braska a pained expression of exasperation and sat down on a fallen log. This whole ordeal was too strange - too unfair. Sin could go after his wife and son, too? Because of a war that hasn't happened yet?

Braska sat down next to him and lightly tapped the end of his staff in the dirt. "I'm sorry. It's difficult and unsettling to try to understand, … and frankly, I don't understand it either. But perhaps we will both find some answers along the way."

When Jecht didn't respond, Auron moved to stand beside Braska. "Perhaps we should skip the hunt tonight and stay here. We're not out of rations yet. They're just low."

"No, no. Go. We need food." Jecht waved them off. "I just … need some time to think about all this." He ran his hands over his face, as he tried to reason with himself about this situation he'd been thrown into.

Braska nodded in acceptance of the bewildering and heavy burden of this revelation. "We'll try to hurry back," he promised before standing and hesitantly leaving with Auron to see what wildlife could be found in the area.

After they left, Jecht sat alone with his thoughts for a long moment, then took the recording sphere from his packed supplies and set it in front of him, positioning it toward himself. The memory of how he left his wife and his boy made it more difficult to cope with the knowledge that he might never see them again. If he survived the fiends, he still didn't know what brought him forward in time, so he had no clue how to reverse it. He just knew Sin had something to do with it. But if Sin could go back to Zanarkand, then his wife and boy weren't safe. He needed to warn them about Sin and tell the boy to protect his mother. He could bury the spheres along the path of their pilgrimage and maybe someone would find them and … No. He shook his head in discouragement. Clues buried in the future couldn't be found in the past, … could they? Maybe it wasn't the future, though. Maybe it was just an alternate reality. Or maybe it was all just a dream. Jecht grasped his head, which was beginning to hurt from thinking too hard about this.

Finally, he sighed and shifted the bandana he wore about his forehead. Then, he touched the sphere to start recording all that he was thinking. It started as a message to his son, but the words weren't coming out the way he hoped, so, eventually he declared he was no good at these these things and turned off the sphere. Since it wasn't quite what he wanted to say, he turned it on once more to try again. "Anyways, ... I believe in you. Be good. Goodbye," he added before turning it off once more. Tapping it lightly against his palm, he debated with himself whether to leave it or take it with him.

As he glanced to the side, he noticed Auron's jug of nog sitting among their supplies. Dark thoughts clouded Jecht's mind, and he set down the memory sphere to reach for the jug. "Let's see how this tastes, shall we?" Uncorking the jug, he raised it to his lips and tasted a swallow. "Ahhhh! Good stuff." He took another swig. He wondered what his wife and son were doing right now. He recalled the last time he saw them - the looks on their faces as Shuyin walked in after Dannae was struck down. Maybe they were relieved that he was gone. He couldn't explain or apologize or anything. Of all the rotten times to get separated ... Jecht groaned to himself and buried his head in one hand, pulling the red bandanna down over his eyes and then off of his head completely. Shivering in the chilly, crystal surroundings, he drank another swig from the jug to enjoy the warmth and numb his regrets.

))((

Unknown to Jecht, Bahamut and Shiva sat across from him. Bahamut had kept a close eye on him since his arrival in Bevelle, and had been pleased with the progress of their experimental illusion so far, but Jecht's realization that he was out of place and out of time seemed to devastate him. For the first time since the experiment began, Bahamut became worried. "He understands the importance of Braska's task now."

"Are you certain he can handle it?" Shiva asked, sitting down on the log beside the illusion and clasping her hands at her knees.

"No," he admitted. "But he seems to be thinking more deeply, at least." No longer able to predict what this illusion would do, Bahamut crouched in front of Jecht to study his troubled expression. Then, he looked to Shiva with a mixture of sympathy and disappointment as they continued to keep silent watch over their illusion's experience in the real world.

))((

Returning from the hunt about an hour later, Auron and Braska carried the summoner's staff between them with three small animals strung over it. Auron spotted his jug of nog in Jecht's hands and immediately pushed his end of the staff into his lord's hands to snatch his jug from the offending blitzball player. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" He checked the amount that remained.

"Just trying to stay warm, seeing as how these trees are covered in ice crystals or something. Surrounded by firewood and none of it's usable," Jecht grumbled at the irony with annoyance. "Is that a fish or a bird?" he asked, squinting at the strange animals they'd caught.

Auron turned to Braska with an angry frown. "He's drunk again. He's of no use to us as a drunk."

Braska was upset to see his new guardian had done this, but he remained soft-spoken and calm. "Jecht, ... you need your sharpest senses about you on this journey." Shouldering the awkward and somewhat heavy staff of animals, he cast a magical fire over the pit. "There are fiends all around, and if you are not alert to them, you cannot hope to fight them off."

"My senses are fine. I'm just cold. And I'm not a drunk," he answered Auron with a slur.

Auron scowled at him. "When you steal someone else's drink, you're a drunk."

Jecht stood nose-to-nose with him. "I am the MPV for the best blitzball team on the ship! I deserve to de-stress a little now and then, esspecially while camping, so I'm not going to let some tight-ass monk call me a drunk." He punctuated his claim by giving him a strong shove backwards.

"I call it as I see it." Auron returned the challenge and shoved him right back. "What are you going to do - hit me because you don't like the truth? Don't you see how out of control you are? Stay away from the nog!"

Braska stepped forward using the staff bearing the hunted animals as a barrier between them. "I think these should be put on the spit, if we're to start cooking them."

Auron gave the drunken blitzball player another frown, but accepted the duty. "Yes, My Lord."

With Auron cooling his temper, Braska turned to Jecht and sighed with disappointment. "Jecht, … Auron is right. You must keep your drinking under control for the sake of this journey. The alcohol is distorting your ability to think about what you're doing, and out here that could mean the difference between life and death."

"I can stop drinking any time I want," Jecht boasted.

"Then promise us that you will."

"Okay, fine, promise," he reluctantly growled, glaring at Auron.

Auron started to say something else, but Braska held up a hand to interrupt him. "If we are to succeed at this task, we need to work together as a team - as friends. None of us are perfect, and it does none of us any good to focus on our faults. I want no enmity between us. That is the only thing that would be sacrilege here. Jecht has promised he would stop drinking. We will accept his word on the matter and refrain from further insults."

Auron pressed his lips together, but accepted the reprimand with a slight bow of apology. "I'm sorry, sir."

"And, please, no need to call me sir," he added. "I'd rather my guardians be friends than mercenaries."

The young warrior monk nodded and cast a glance toward Jecht, before setting down his almost empty jug and turning his attention to making the spit to roast their kill.

Jecht grabbed a large knife from the supplies and removed the animals from Braska's staff to begin dressing them for cooking.

Braska realized that Jecht was indeed shivering with cold, since he wore only the same shorts in which he had washed ashore. So, after removing his formal headdress, he removed his heavy robe and offered it to him. "This can warm you until the fire is sufficient."

Jecht saw what he was offering and shook his head. "Nah, I couldn't."

"I insist. We're heading south into warmer territory, but I should have thought to purchase you some new clothing before we left Bevelle." In exchange for the robe, he held out his hand for the knife, wary that the drunken man would accidentally slice into one of his own fingers.

Jecht reluctantly passed the knife to the summoner and slipped into the heavy, layered robes. The warmth made him shudder. "Thanks, … and sorry," he offered. "I was thinking too deeply about things back home, I guess. And, Auron, … I didn't mean to drink all your nog. Tasty stuff, though," he added, trying to find humor to break the tension.

Auron paused in his task, but kept his attention on it, responding only with a small nod.

"It's understandable that you would be concerned for your family," Braska answered as, once more, he bound his kimono's long sleeves out of his way and began to work on preparing their catch.

"Well, it's … more than all this. I was having contract disputes with my managers before I left." He couldn't bring himself to admit that he had hit his wife. "They said I was getting too old to play - said I needed to retire. I'm thirty-five. Since when is that old? Ask anyone who their favorite blitz player is. They'll tell you, 'Jecht!' Everyone knows me there. I worked hard to be on top!" Jecht shook his head and sat down on the log near the fire. "I've been playing professionally since I was seventeen - broke every record. So what if I'm not breaking records any more? They're my records, damn it! I'm still the best!" He paused. "But what does that say about you when the team you gave your whole life to decides to let you go? It says ... time to quit. But I'm not ready to quit. I've still got a lot of good plays left in me."

"It sounds discouraging," Braska sympathized, listening as he worked. "But drinking won't solve anything. Trying to escape your problems only makes them worse."

"I don't need your lectures, all right?" Jecht groused. "I said I would stop drinking."

"No lectures. Just logic, ... and concern from a friend." Braska noticed the sphere beside Jecht on the log. "Recording again?"

"Yeah. Something for my boy." Jecht looked at it for a long, thoughtful moment. "Something to let him know ... I'm proud of him, you know? Just in case ..."

The spit was finished, so Auron came near to Braska to wait for the finished animals. "A boy needs to hear words like that from his father."

Jecht seemed surprised at the change in the warrior monk's tone. Rising from the log, he picked up the memory sphere and strode to the edge of the spring. Braska stood and passed the first of the animals to Auron with a nod of gratitude. Then, he looked toward Jecht, who hesitated a moment, then dropped the sphere into the lake with a small splash.


	29. Chapter 29: Tainted Aeon

Chapter 29: Tainted Aeon

Auron set a glass of white liquid on the table. Jecht leaned forward to look at it without touching it. "What's that?" he complained.

"Shoopuff milk." Auron sat down across from him at the cafe in Luca. "Remember when you got drunk and attacked that Shoopuff at the moonflow? You swore off alcohol _again_ and said this was the only thing you'd drink from now on. So, you made a promise, and this time you're keeping it."

"I didn't think they actually made this stuff."

"Well, they do. So, drink up."

Jecht pulled the glass closer and sniffed it with distaste. "How about tea instead?"

Auron smirked with satisfaction. "Now, Jecht. A man's word is his honor. We're just helping you keep your promise."

Braska returned with a tray full of food and dispensed it between his friends and himself before sitting down, but among the items he set on the table were two more glasses of white liquid.

Auron's smirk faded. "What's this?" he asked, as if some mistake had been made in their order.

"Our way of supporting Jecht and helping him keep his promise. Leave it to Luca to have a little bit of everything on the menu," Braska announced with a grin. "I never made Yuna take medicine or eat something that I couldn't swallow myself. I will treat my guardian with no less respect than my own flesh and blood." He lifted his own serving of shoopuff milk to make a toast. "In celebration of our victory over the fiends on Mi'ihen High Road and Jecht staying sober since the Moonflow."

Jecht chuckled in low amusement at Auron's lack of enthusiasm about the drink now, and he lifted his glass, giving it a shake in front of the warrior monk's nose. "Drink up."

With a sigh, Auron reluctantly picked up the glass and clinked it against the other two. All three of them took in a mouthful of their experimental refreshment. Auron winced at the taste and glanced to Jecht. The blitz player was definitely on the verge of spitting it back out. The two of them looked to Braska, who swallowed, but no longer looked very composed. Auron figured that was enough of a veto to forgo his manners and set the glass back down. Jecht coughed his mouthful back into the glass, while Braska tried to wipe his mouth out with a napkin. But their shared reactions at the horrendous flavor made the lord summoner start laughing, which made his guardians laugh as well.

"That has to be the most god-awful stuff I ever put in my mouth!" Jecht declared.

Auron made a face. "Tastes like … thick, soured beans."

"How about some _tea_," Jecht suggested again, giving him a told-ya-so expression.

Braska, anxious to get the flavor out of his mouth, reached for his bowl of noodles. "Tea would be wonderful."

Jecht stood, but smacked the back of Auron's head for trying to make him drink the stuff in the first place before heading to the counter to ask for three sensible teas.

Braska chuckled at the reluctant camaraderie that was growing between his two guardians and pinched half of a sliced egg between his eating utensils. "He's making progress, don't you think?"

"If you want to call a broken window, a beat-up shoopuff, and nearly getting us killed by a chocobo eater progress." Auron took a big bite out of his rolled rice, glad to get the taste of the soured milk out of his mouth with something sweet.

Braska chuckled again. "Well, he seems to have taken our mission to heart, at least, even if he doesn't know as much about it as one would think, living in Zanarkand like that."

"Do you still believe him?"

"I have no reason not to, until I see otherwise with my own eyes. It is strange, though. I can't help but wonder if he came to us through a sort of ... divine means."

"Jecht? Divine?" Auron snorted. "That's more than a little contradictory."

Braska smiled so that his eyes nearly squinted shut. "Is it? He knows nothing of the rest of Spira or Sin, so that makes him fearless and free in a way we can only envy. Concerning Zanarkand, he has intimate knowledge of a mystery that most of us know only through myth and legend. But more than that, he came exactly when we needed him." Braska dipped a small bunch of thinly sliced, fresh vegetables in the spicy sauce pooling at the bottom of his noodles. "I feel he is a good omen. It's as if our paths were meant to cross – as if Yevon truly is looking after us."

Auron could hardly picture the great spirit of Yevon selecting someone as crass as Jecht to grace them with divine intervention, but he had to agree the circumstances were highly unusual.

"I can't help but wonder if the key to a future without Sin lies buried in the past – through him. It seems I am leading this pilgrimage, but in truth, I feel compelled to follow him."

"No offense, sir, but … do you think that's wise?"

"If we want to know how to defeat an ancient spirit, it makes sense to learn from an ancient spirit."

"If Jecht is an ancient spirit, … wouldn't that make him an unsent?"

"I don't believe so. He's too real to be a ghost, and he doesn't feed on vengeance the way that unsent spirits and fiends do. In fact, it's quite the opposite. He enjoys laughter and fun, and so do I. And didn't I ask you to stop calling me 'sir'?" Braska mildly scolded.

The warrior monk winced in apology. "Sorry, My Lord. Old habits die hard."

The summoner laughed. "So it would seem, Auron. So, it would seem."

Jecht returned, balancing three glasses of refreshing, cold tea in his hands, and set them in the center of the table before swiping one for himself and sitting down again. He drank nearly half the glass all in one continuous gulp. "Ahhhh! Much better."

Braska swallowed a mouthful as well, and decided upon a proposal for the rest of their day in Luca. "Jecht, there's a blitzball stadium near the docks. Would you like to see a game before we depart for Kilika?"

Jecht reached into his travel bag for a new sphere. "A Luca blitz game, huh? I just hope they're good enough that I don't have to show 'em how it's done."

))((

In Besaid Village, after Braska successfully gained Valefor's aeon, the weak summoner leaned on the warrior monk's shoulder as they left the temple and headed down the dirt road between the small huts toward the village gates. "Lord Braska, are you sure you don't want to rest in the lodge?" Auron asked.

"There's time for the lodge tonight. Right now, I want to see the beach and enjoy the sun," the tired summoner answered, wiping the heavy sweat from his brow and tugging the blue hood beneath his headdress loose. He looked as if he were going to pass out in the heat if he didn't catch a cool breeze soon.

A blitzball suddenly flew toward Braska, but Jecht was quick to catch it. "Hey! Watch where you're throwing this thing!" he fussed at a group of young boys playing in the middle of the road as they passed. "You almost hit the summoner!"

"Uh, sorry 'bout that!" The oldest boy in the group – a boy with flame-colored hair - answered in apology. Turning, he scowled at a younger boy - who also had flame-colored hair - for getting them in trouble. "Chappu, you bonehead! You almost hit a summoner!" The older boy grasped the younger one about the neck and dragged him toward Lord Braska.

"Wakka! Lemme go! It was an accident!" Chappu protested.

"It doesn't matter, ya? If Dad were here, he'd make you apologize when you hurt someone, even if you didn't mean to."

"You're not Dad!" Chappu tried to escape his big brother's headlock, but when he was deposited him in front of the exhausted summoner and saw how unwell he looked, he readily bowed in apology with his brother. "Sorry, sir," Chappu offered in a small, sincere voice.

Braska smiled at the boys. "Quite all right. Better than breaking someone's expensive window, right? At least the ball can bounce off of me." He cast a humored glance to Jecht before allowing Auron to continue leading him toward the beach.

Jecht cleared his throat. "Well, um, anyway, just be more careful next time." He spun the ball around his wrist, volleyed the ball through a few moves, and then flicked it into the air behind his shoulder. A stupefied Wakka caught the ball, and the professional blitzball player walked away, grinning to himself at the astonished looks on the boys' little faces.

))((

When they arrived on the beach, Auron released Braska so that both of them could sit down in the sand at the edge of the tide and watch the sun set on the water's horizon. Braska removed his headdress and shoes, then immediately peeled out of his heavy, formal attire, down to his light linen clothing again. It was as if removing his robes of office removed the heavy burden of his pilgrimage from his shoulders for a moment.

Jecht watched with concern as the drained summoner lay his head on the robes and closed his eyes to cool off and bask in the last of the sun's rays. This was Braska's fifth summoning, and while he claimed it had been easier than any of the rest, it was clear that each progressive test from the Fayth required more magical energy than the one before it. Perhaps that was why past summoners never returned – it took too much out of them. Barefoot and wading a few steps into the undulating tide, the blitzball player began picking shells out of the wet sand.

Copying the summoner, Auron removed his coat and boots and rolled up the cuffs of his pants in a fruitless effort to keep the sand out of his clothes. Then, he pushed his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose and pulled a sphere from his pocket. "Where should we tuck this one for safe keeping?"

Braska looked at it for a long moment before deciding. "Near the temple. I'm sure that will be an easy place for you to find it when you return with Yuna." He turned his gaze to the ocean where Jecht was skipping shells across the water. "This is a much more peaceful place than Bevelle. It suits her quiet nature, so I know she'll like living here. And the children are nice, so maybe she'll make some good friends. It sounded as if those two boys lost their father. Judging by their ages and the look of the village, I'd say it was because of an attack by Sin about ten years ago. Which means Sin is due to strike here again soon, unless we can strike it first." Braska shook his head at the unspoken tragedy. "Too many fathers and mothers lost, while another generation of children is left to raise itself. If I needed anything else to remind me why we're doing this, … that was it."

Jecht brushed the clumps of sand from a shell he was fingering. Then, he pitched it beyond the tide and watched it skip three times. Each time the shell touched the water, it forced the surface to bend and ripple. The blitzball pro was in his element here, yet he was gazing at the sun, sand, and surf rather than diving into it.

"You are being uncharacteristically quiet this evening, Jecht." Braska broke the silence.

"Just thinking." He pitched another shell and watched the ripples skid across the surface again.

"About what?"

Jecht lifted the remaining shell in his hand and studied it. It looked a lot like Sin's shell. "Sin brought me here. Sin may be the only way for me to go back. I have to touch it again."

Auron shook his head in disapproval and rubbed a hand over a taught, sore arm muscle. "Sin's toxin is too dangerous, never mind the danger of getting close enough to touch it."

"That's what did the trick the first time, and I don't see that I have any other choice. But even if I do find a way back, Zanarkand is doomed. If Sin doesn't get it, the war will. Going home to tell my wife and kid that the city's going to be blown to ruins ... That's not much of a homecoming present, you know?"

Braska sat up with concern. "Don't tell me you're giving up hope on going home. You're not giving up on your family, are you?"

"That's what I was thinking about." He pitched another shell, watched it skip, and then faced them. "If I use Sin to go home, maybe I could grab my wife and kid and bring them here. It may not save them from Sin, but it will at least save them from the war. I think they'd like this place. Well, parts of it anyway. My wife would enjoy shopping in Luca, and my boy would probably love to kick a ball around on this beach and ride a shoopuff. When we find Sin again, do you guys think you could, you know, kinda hold off killing it until I can get them out?"

Braska sympathized, but he shook his head in apology. "If Sin strikes down the Final Aeon because we're holding it back, we may lose our only chance at defeating it. Once it's banished, we can't call the aeon back until it's rested, and I know Sin won't go away and wait for it to heal before it resumes our battle. It's a one-time shot. I'm sorry, Jecht."

Jecht nodded in acceptance of that logic. "Yeah - stupid idea."

"Nothing stupid about it," Braska countered, in spite of having to turn it down. He gave it some thought and draped an elbow on one knee. "I believe you should try it. I'm just not sure I can compromise the Final Aeon for one family knowing all of Spira is at stake."

"Understood." Jecht threw his final shell. This one promptly sank.

))((

"Still keeping watch on Jecht, I see?" Valefor asked as she sat down in the sand next to Bahamut.

The boy nodded and tried to dig into the sand between them, but his fingers had trouble making contact beyond surface resistence. "Braska has all the main temples' aeons now. All he has to do is go back for the hidden ones. It looks like things are going according to plan. There's just one thing that concerns me. Jecht wants to touch Sin again to go home, and Braska is encouraging him to try it."

"You can't blame Jecht for wanting to go home."

"No, but if Jecht returns home, and Braska chooses Auron to be his Final Aeon, all of this will have been in vain. Braska's known Auron longer, so his bond with him is stronger, and Auron is more likely to volunteer. Maybe I should appear to Braska one more time and let him know his hunch about a divine summoning was correct so he'll pick Jecht."

"No. Remember what Shiva said. We can't force Braska to pick Jecht, and we can't force Jecht to volunteer. The whole point of this kind of sacrifice is that it be void of malice. The Fayth must be a willing servant of the summoner. Any resentment will taint the process. Yevon's hate is strong enough without giving him an aeon already tainted toward revenge."

Bahamut frowned in frustration as he watched the three men, each immersed in his own private thoughts, as they watched the sun set. The boy had taken note of the way Braska leaned on Auron coming out of the temple, so he couldn't help but fear the summoner's bond with the warrior monk might ruin everything.

))((

As Braska's party passed the Fayth Scar on their way into Zanarkand, they paused to marvel at the morbid wonder. Jecht reached to touch the glowing magic, but Braska caught his hand. "It is probably not wise to disturb the Fayth."

"What happened to them?" Jecht asked.

"Like all Fayth, they gave their lives to save others."

"But … what's that magic streaming out of them into the sky?"

Braska and Auron were just as puzzled about it as he was. "It looks like they're summoning something." Braska lowered his chin. "But what could they be summoning?"

"The Final Aeon?" Auron offered.

Braska shook his head. "That would be my job.

"Maybe something is summoning them," Jecht suggested.

With that disturbing idea in mind, Braska studied the magic seals. After a few minutes, when he was still unable to make sense of it, he moved on, leading the way down into the ruins of Zanarkand. Auron followed close behind, keeping an eye out for fiends. Jecht lingered for a moment, gazing at the bodies trapped in the stone. He searched the faces carefully, then sighed with relief when none of them looked familiar, before he fell into step behind his other two companions.

As the illusion from their dream walked away, some of the Fayth rose from their tomb to gather along the pass behind them. All eyes were on the trio heading to Zanarkand. Their moment of truth to see if Jecht could reflect Yevon's spell had come.

))((

Kaila closed her eyes and entered the dream to meet Bahamut on the houseboat. "They're here. Braska is ready to seek the Final Aeon," she informed him. Then, having delivered her message, she opened her eyes again and stepped forward among the others to follow Jecht down into the ruins to which he could never return. She accompanied the trio into the lost city and through the fallen temple to the last chamber of the Fayth on their journey, but then hid from Lady Yunalesca behind one of the cracked columns.

As had been the case for over nine hundred years, the expressions on the faces of the summoner and his guardians revealed feelings of hurt, disappointment, and betrayal upon learning the truth about the final stage of the ritual. It had been understood that Braska would sacrifice himself, but none of them realized the Fayth for the Final Aeon would have to be one of his own guardians. Braska faced his two friends, unable to find words for the heaviness in his heart, but his thoughts were written all over his face. They had both fought so hard to protect him on their journey. How could he choose between them? How could he sacrifice a friend? This was not justice; it was cruel irony. Still, if it was the only hope that Spira had for a time of Calm, he saw no way out of it.

Bahamut ran into the temple and came to a stop beside Kaila. "What did I miss?"

"Sssh! She might hear you. They just found out that there is no Final Aeon."

The boy's expression saddened. "Did Braska choose yet?"

"Not yet." Kaila shook her head. "I hate this part. It's always so heart-wrenching."

Bahamut nodded in morose agreement and watched with worry as Braska started to follow Lady Yunalesca's apparition into the Final Summoning chamber. He still debated whether he should do something to ensure Braska picked Jecht.

Then, out of desperation, Auron's resolve broke. He pleaded with Braska to turn back. Braska stopped at the bottom of the stairs, but did not turn around to face his guardians. Patient as always, but obviously struggling to keep his resolve, he reminded them that if they could defeat Sin, no one else would have to bear this burden ever again. Auron insisted they try to think of another solution, but Jecht could see that Auron's pleas were only making Braska's painful decision worse.

"Make me the Fayth." Jecht finally broke his silence.

Bahamut and Kaila stopped breathing in stunned unison with Braska and Auron.

"I been doing some thinking," he explained. "My dream is back in the other Zanarkand. I wanted to make that runt a star blitz player. Show him the view from the top, you know. But now I know there's no way home for me. I'm never going to see him again. My dream's never gonna come true. So make me the Fayth. I'll fight Sin with you, Braska. Then maybe my life will have meaning, you know."

Bahamut sighed with heavy relief. Their arrogant illusion had finally volunteered to do something selfless.

The disillusioned monk resumed his protests, reminding them that if Sin always came back, no matter what, their deaths would mean nothing. Braska, humbled by Jecht's offer, thanked him for volunteering and reminded Auron that the teachings of Yevon promised hope for an Eternal Calm someday. Jecht had never followed Yevon's teachings, though – not even in the Zanarkand of the past. "I understand what you're saying, Auron. I'll find a way to break the cycle."

As the doors of the Final Summoning chamber slammed shut behind Jecht and Braska, Auron dropped to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut against the emotion about to betray him. He was completely unable to accept this now that they were here. And yet, it was their resolve. Therefore, he had to continue to make it his resolve. Auron made himself stand and follow them through the chamber proper. Then, he knelt behind them and apologized for having protested. Braska's words consoled him, but Jecht gave pause and asked for one final favor. "Take care of my son."

Auron had already promised he would go back for Yuna, and he had no idea how he would get to Jecht's Zanarkand let alone find his son, but he decided the least he could do for his friends was to look after their children. "All right, I will. I give you my word. I'll take care of your son. I'll guard him with my life."

Bahamut and Kaila followed Braska and Jecht further into the chamber as the final doors closed behind them, but rose high above and behind the temple ceiling to keep their distance from Lady Yunalesca. After all this time, the powerful unsent spirit still maintained her duty to her father, defending his honor as she spoke promising, but empty, words about giving Spira hope. After almost a thousand years, her unsent vigil and recitation of the sleep spell had become rote, but her dedication to preserving these routine sacrifices to pacify her father's rage had intensified. Even when Zaon's soul was freed and he begged her to return to the Farplane with him, Yunalesca continued collecting the souls of summoners and their guardians to keep her father well. Yet as she cast the spell of transformation on Jecht, something happened that caught everyone by surprise, even her.

The human guardian's physical body should have collapsed to the ground and been absorbed into Zaon's seal for temporary holding. Instead, Jecht's body faded into pyreflies, which dispersed, but then swirled back together into the form of a spirit. For a second, the spirit blurred into someone that looked like Jecht, but then the pyreflies swarmed into Braska with force. The overwhelmed human summoner drew a sharp breath and fell forward to his knees. The ancient summoner blinked in surprise and froze. Kaila gasped, but Bahamut anxiously cupped a hand over her mouth to keep her from giving away their presence.

Braska fought to catch his breath, then reached for Jecht's body, but he, too, was utterly confused when he saw nothing left behind. "Where is the statue that will honor his sacrifice? Why is there still no Fayth?" After a long moment, Auron was at the distraught summoner's side, helping him stand. Braska once more had to lean on his friend's strong shoulder as ancient, powerful magic flowed through him.

Yunalesca confronted them with anger and worry. "Tell me you didn't give me some kind of unsent soul to create a tainted Fayth."

"My Lady, I do not know who our friend truly was, but we will do our best to honor whatever gift he has given to us." Braska bowed to the unsent summoner in gratitude for the spells to summon the Final Aeon. Then, he left with his remaining guardian to begin the end of his journey - the return to the Calm Lands to fight Sin.

Angered and uncertain about what had just happened, Lady Yunalesca flew out of the summoning chamber ahead of them.

Once they were alone, Kaila pulled Bahamut's hand from her mouth to panic aloud. "He had a soul! Did you see that? How could he have a soul? He was just an illusion! He wasn't supposed to have a soul! Did we create another Jecht when we made him real?"

"Calm down, okay?" Bahamut fussed in return. "I don't know what happened, but we'd better alert the others that something changed. Come on!"

Bahamut and Kaila flew back to Fayth Scar to report what they had witnessed. No one knew what to make of the fact that Jecht's illusion seemed to now have a soul of its own, but the general consensus was foreboding. The entire body of Fayth moved to the top of Mt. Gagazet to await the battle between Sin and Braska's Final Aeon.

))((

Auron faithfully supported Braska back through the treacherous mountain pass, stopping only to allow the summoner to rest through the night for a few hours during the deepest darkness. They said nothing to each other, throughout the gruelling journey. No words could fill the void.

The next day, they continued their trek through the unseen gathering of spirits and down into the Calm Lands below. There, the summoner stopped and gave his sole guardian a hug.

"This is far enough, friend. Tell Yuna, ... I love her."

"Lord Braska ..."

The summoner gave a sad laugh. "Auron, please, ... 'Braska' will do," he reminded him again. Then, he walked away to a safe distance and lifted his staff to begin the Final Summoning. "Jecht, ... this is it. Spira needs you."

Jecht's aeon broke through the ground at Braska's feet - a larger-than-life, muscular hulk with long, clawed hands, spikes, and horns. Except for the black Abes tattoo that still adorned his chest and the red headband in his now-bushy-white mane, he didn't look anything like the man he once was. Braska was rendered speechless by his newest aeon, but he instinctively knew what had to be done next. Bowing before the friend who gave his life to help him, he cast Yunalesca's meditative spell that would allow his spirit could leave his own body. Braska bowed once to Auron in gratitude for his friendship and service, but then melded with his aeon to fortify him with stronger magic.

Auron nearly fell to his knees at the horrific sight, but he made himself draw his sword and stand over Braska's vulnerable body, prepared to defend him to his last breath. Over the cliffs from Zanarkand, the lone guardian on the large battlefield could see Sin flying into the vicinity, answering the call of Jecht's soul.

))((

Bahamut watched as Jecht drew a flaming sword from his chest and took the initiative against Sin. The boy was awed by the spectacle of what they had created and surprised that the illusion had survived the transformation into the Final Aeon. But aside from the actual outcome of the battle, one vital mystery remained.

"The illusion was not supposed to have a soul." Kaila spoke her friend's unspoken thoughts because she was still thinking them, too.

"It didn't. You saw it. There was nothing there when his body faded."

"But then the pyreflies took on Jecht's form again. I'm sorry for freaking out a little here, but I'm thinking we somehow summoned the real Jecht."

Bahamut considered the possibility. What if they had indeed summoned an unsent soul as an aeon? What if they had just created something much, much worse than Sin?

Jecht's sword, followed by a blast of magic, broke apart Sin's exterior shell. The Fayth's aeon had won. But the Final Aeons always won the battle against Sin. The only thing that changed over the years was the shape and complexity of each new challenger. The Fayth had seen it too many times to be hopeful yet. The real fight had only just begun.

"Wait! Jecht's memories were in the dream," the boy realized. "He couldn't be unsent! Maybe he was summoned from the Farplane, or something."

"That's better than being unsent, but that still means that might be the real Jecht out there being summoned against his will!" Kaila worried.

Jecht's aeon flew into the cracked shell to challenge Sin's heart - the possessed aeon of his predecessor. After a long wait, there was an explosion within the shell, and the aeon armor began to dissolve in a huge cloud of swarming pyreflies. Within that swarm, the twisted black mass that was once Yu Yevon hovered near Jecht for a moment. He seemed to suspect something different about this Final Aeon, but then he sent out multiple waves of mind control magic to possess it. Jecht's aeon roared in defiance and slashed back at the black mass.

Bahamut could hardly believe his eyes. "It's working! He's resisting Yevon's will! He's trying to fight back!" he shouted in excitement.

Now the battle held the rapt attention of every Fayth gathered on the mountain top. Braska's Final Aeon continued to throw a fury of physical and magical attacks against Yu Yevon, but Yevon was able to do something Jecht could not - summon two pillar-like pagodas to heal himself after each round. Eventually, the new aeon's attacks became weaker, and Yevon shifted focus from healing himself to launching his own attacks. When the new aeon's energy and magic were exhausted, Yevon was able to break through Jecht's defenses and seep into his mind with the possession spell.

"NO!" Bahamut shouted, clenching his fists. "Resist him! Keep fighting!"

As Braska's soul was ripped from the aeon's body, his body slumped to the ground at Auron's feet. Jecht released one final roar of anguish before Yevon gained control and melded. There was a long, silent pause, and then Jecht's aeon flew out of sight, back to Zanarkand.

Bahamut broke away from the other Fayth and flew down into the Calm Lands where Auron was already grieving the loss of both of his friends. Braska's spirit stared at the approaching boy with disheartened exhaustion and dismay. "You were … so close," Bahamut told him. "Thank you for trying."

Braska acknowledged the small boy with familiarity and understanding. "Bahamut, ... you're the one who sent Jecht to us?"

Bahamut lowered his head in disheartened shame. His plan had failed. They had probably trapped the real Jecht into a fate worse than death. And they had helped to create the next bringer of death and destruction to Spira. There was no telling how strong this one would be. "What have we done?" Bahamut buried his face in his hands and started to cry.

Braska set his hand on the small spirit's shoulder. He was, after all, just a small boy. "Thank you. You gave me friendship, laughter, and hope. You've helped us give Spira another Calm. And maybe you've given our children something much, much more in the future." He watched Auron struggle with the same sense of failure they were all feeling at the moment. "Jecht promised to find a way to end the cycle. He will remember us. Keep believing in him." He lifted his chin toward the departing aeon that had once been his friend. "I do."

))((

Ten years passed before Sin rose from the depths of his long hibernation again. Jecht had not been strong enough to break free of Yevon's possessive magic, but he did manage to do something no human Fayth could do before him. He retained his sense of who he was. He was acutely aware of what he had become, … and he hated it.

Kaila and Bahamut met on Jecht's houseboat seeking solace from the guilt that had plagued them as they observed this dreadful anniversary again. What they didn't realize, as they stared at the instrument of destruction of their own making, was that they were not alone.

"You're not my wife and son," a gruff voice complained from behind.

The two Fayth jumped slightly at the third presence and turned around. Kaila gasped and then grinned. "Jecht! Is it really you? But I thought ... I thought -"

"Who are you and what are you doing on my boat?" Jecht's brows drew together.

"I'm Kaila, … Koji's sister, … Shuyin's friend's sister?" She gently prodded his memory.

"Little Kaila?" Jecht was genuinely astonished. "Was I gone that long?"

Kaila winced at having to tell him the truth. "You died when I was seven, but I died ten years later when Lord Yevon turned us into Fayth after the Machina War."

"Machina War … Yeah, I heard about that. That means my little munchkin is probably as big as you are, right?" He paused an uneasy moment. "Is he here, … anywhere?"

Kaila and Bahamut exchanged uncertain looks wondering if they should tell him the fate of his son. "No," Kaila answered with sympathy. "Shuyin hasn't been here in a long time."

Jecht lowered his gaze in disappointment. "My wife's in the Farplane, but I never found my boy. I was hoping he'd be here, but … I guess that means he's still out there, doesn't it."

"The last time we saw him, his spirit was looking for my sister - his girlfriend," Bahamut answered.

"Girlfriend, huh? Miss a thousand years of your kid's life and he gets all grown-up on you." He chuckled lightly at the disheartening news, but then squinted slightly at the boy, as if remembering something. "You're the kid that spoke to me in the water in Bevelle."

The boy gave a reluctant nod. "I'm a Fayth, too. We're …. the ones who sent you to Lord Braska to help defeat Sin," he added with equal hesitation. "We never meant to disturb your rest. We just didn't want another summoner to die." Bahamut moved to the rail beside him. "I thought a memory illusion might break the cycle since it has no soul and is made of Yevon's own magic."

"Hm, good theory, kid. Shame it didn't work. Although, it kinda did, or I wouldn't be here."

Kaila shook her head in confusion as she drew near to his other side. "I don't understand. You're Sin now. Yevon doesn't usually allow the Final Fayth to come back into the dream. He keeps him close, … under control."

"Ah, but I'm a tainted Fayth. I drowned with my own desires, rather than volunteering to be a servant for some master summoner. He hates that because it means he can't control me so easily. He's stronger than me, though. Eventually, he'll probably win. But I'm stubborn as hell, so I intend to give him a wild ride for his money," he added with a low chuckle and a grin.

Kaila smiled at his casual attitude. "But … how did your soul become Braska's Final Aeon? We started with nothing but an illusion. It wasn't supposed to have a soul."

The blitzball pro's spirit leaned against the rail. "Well, while I was in the Farplane, I started having these weird dreams about things that never really happened. Then with all that talk about summoning, I wondered if someone had summoned my memories back to life. I was getting a new window on reality, so I paid attention to figure out some of what was going on and why. When Yunalesca opened the portal between the Farplane and reality, I took it to see what would happen. I never really met Braska and Auron before that, but … it felt like we were old friends, so I couldn't let them down. Then Braska was strong enough to actually pull me through as a tainted aeon. I kicked Sin's ass, but then Yevon kicked mine, so … here I am."

Kaila was thankful he was forgiving about it. "We're really sorry for getting you into this mess. I wish there was some way, we could free you, but ... we can't even free ourselves."

Jecht's relaxed demeanor became serious as he met her expression. "Try again."

Bahamut shook his head. "It's pointless. It won't change anything. I thought not having a soul would reflect Yevon's magic, or make it immune, but instead it fell apart when Yunalesca tried to turn it into a Fayth. If you hadn't come through when you did, Braska wouldn't have even had a Final Aeon. But as long as a soul is present, Yevon can possess it."

"But the fact that he's a tainted Fayth makes it harder for Yevon to control him," Kaila inserted their newly discovered information into the formula. "There's got to be an advantage in that."

"_Try again_," Jecht repeated. "I made a promise to Auron, guys. You gotta help me find a way to break the cycle. No one else should have to die just so Yevon can remain immortal."

This time Kaila was the one who became excited about the possibilities. "If we can find another dead soul to wrap in illusion, Jecht can take it out of the dream into reality, just like we did before. Only this time, we'll have two tainted Fayths. If the Final Aeon doesn't waste its strength fighting Sin in the first battle, it will be stronger to fight Yevon in the second. But, ... who's soul should we pick this time? We already used our best choice."

"Why, thank you, my dear. I _am_ the best," Jecht agreed with a playful grin.

That grin brought back a memory - like father, like son. Kaila placed a hand on Bahamut's shoulder. "Shuyin," she decided.

Bahamut shook his head with disagreement, but didn't want to discuss why in front of Jecht.

The thought of eventually having to fight his own son seemed to upset Jecht at first, but then he nodded in agreement. "Alright. He's always wanted a chance to kick my ass. This is as good a time as any. I just hope the runt's up to it, or I could be stuck like this forever." The blitzball player suddenly grimaced at something unseen and jumped down from his perch as if something was in his head. "Yevon's getting restless. He doesn't want me here, and he's probably going to keep me on a short leash as he gets more irritable. I don't know when I can come back, so listen good." His spirit began to flicker and fade. "We only have a limited time to do this. When Yevon comes into the dream to calm himself, it means the Calm out there is almost over. Ask among the souls on the Farplane. Someone somewhere has to have seen my son. If you can find him and ask him to do this, I will find a way to make it happen. In fact, I know someone else who can help him. If we all pitch in as a team, we can win this thing!" he insisted, before the unseen force pulled him away.

Bahamut looked to Kaila. "_Shuyin? Really? _You saw what he was like the last time he came to Zanarkand. If he's still unsent after all this time, there's no way this can be a good thing. At least Jecht's soul had been in the Farplane at rest so we didn't end up sending a fiend to Braska."

"The Shuyin we used to know would be perfect for this."

"But he's not the Shuyin we used to know, Kaila!"

"He's not a monster either!" Kaila paced to release her tension. "I know him too well, Bahamut. The real Shuyin is out there somewhere hating himself because of something he's unable to forgive himself for. We need to find him." She left the deck and headed for the Farplane.

Bahamut reluctantly followed, but he still didn't see how anything good could come of it.


	30. Chapter 30: The Unsent's Fayth

Chapter 30: The Unsent's Fayth

The Farplane's Abyss felt strange to the Fayth as he touched down in a meadow of blue and purple flowers. Bahamut could feel the overwhelming urge to release his ghost form and rest, but Bahamut's soul was trapped elsewhere, anchored within reality and bonded to an eternal summoning by a magical seal that made real, undisturbed rest impossible. The same was true for Kaila.

"I'm looking for a soul from Zanarkand." Kaila walked slowly through the flowers as she spoke to the unseen spirits at rest around them. "His name is Shuyin, and he was unsent for a time, looking for another spirit named Lenne. He was a blitzball player who died in the Machina War. Has anyone passed him in their travels?"

One of a few pyreflies that lazily drifted through the air turned toward him, attracted more pyreflies, and became the spirit of Master Renuta. "He didn't die in the war. He and his girlfriend were executed in Bevelle for trying to steal Vegnagun. He is the one who sent me here, but he was wearing the body of another person. He has learned how to possess the living."

Kaila shook her head at the horrible news. "Possess the living?"

"Executed?" Bahamut echoed. "I thought they died in battle."

"She was captured. He tried to free her. I ordered their executions before they could use Vegnagun."

Bahamut's face pinched in anger. "You had my sister killed?"

"Yevon intended to turn her into an abomination. And Vegnagun would have killed many more. It is an unstable weapon that could endanger all of Spira."

Tsuran's spirit came forward. "I know of a spirit that once possessed the living. I'm the one he used to murder the maester, but I was killed in the attempt to capture him."

Kaila's sadness turned into shock and shook her head. "Shuyin would never murder anyone!"

Ambassador Guregohe appeared. "He killed me, too, point blank with a rifle."

Midoriha joined them. "I was the summoner who tried to send him. I sealed him in a cavern so that he could not escape, but he killed me and my guardians trying to find a way out."

Kaila and Bahamut suddenly found themselves surrounded by spirits who claimed to have been murdered by Shuyin. "He has remained unsent all these years?" Kaila whispered on the brink of tears. "I can't imagine it. Something like that would … It would crush him."

Bahamut looked to the summoner who trapped Shuyin's soul. "Where can I find this cavern?"

"Mushroom Rock Road," Midoriha told them. "If you seek him out, be careful. He has probably grown stronger and more violent over time. He's probably completely transformed into a fiend by now. I deeply regret that I was unable to finishing the sending, but I wanted to help him and then he … possessed me. It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced – not being able to control my own mind or body. Your friend Shuyin is no ordinary spirit. The dark emotions that bind him to his former life can make him unusually real and tangible. The wards I placed will turn malicious intent like that into chains, but have no effect on spirits like the Fayth. Do not disturb any magical wards or physical barriers that have been put in place, however, or he could cause great harm before someone else attempts to send him."

))((

Bahamut stood alone outside the sealed door of the Den of Woe. Kaila had been so distraught at the news of Shuyin's murderous deeds and eternal imprisonment that Bahamut asked her to wait in the dream until he could assess their friend's condition. Even if they couldn't use him to create another tainted aeon, they were concerned for his welfare.

An intricate lock had been placed on the door to prevent humans from disturbing the spirit trap, but that presented no barrier to the Fayth. Drawing up his courage, he made himself walk through the physical door and the ancient seals and holy water designed to repel malevolent spirits. None of it had any effect on him, but the gloomy darkness on the other side, lit only by a cloud of pyreflies, was an incredibly disheartening environment to enter. Scattered on the floor were a few burnt-out torches dusty from centuries of disuse, the preserved skeletons of the summoner and his guardians who set the trap, and the weapons that had failed to save them from the paranormal attack. "Shuyin?" Apparently, no living person had disturbed this place for nearly a thousand years. "Please speak to me. I know that you're here." The pyreflies did not respond, but he could sense a dark presence lurking nearby.

Bahamut licked his lips and continued. "Kaila and I have been looking for you in the Farplane, and someone there told us we could find you here. We were hoping your memories could help us make something in the dream more real." The boy turned a full circle in the darkness.

"My memories are painful and of use to no one. Leave me alone," a voice whispered through the pyreflies.

The familiar voice came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Uncertain, the boy stretched out a hand in anticipation amid the pyreflies. "Your memories might be just what it takes to defeat Lord Yevon. He destroyed Bevelle in retaliation for what it did to Zanarkand, but his aeon, Sin, has continued destroying towns all over Spira ever since. The living are trapped in his cycle of death, so we've decided to try to help them end his rule in a different way. He makes the Fayth summon a dream Zanarkand, and we think his own magic from that dream might be able to resist and defeat him. Kaila and I figured out a way to make an illusion from the dream real. Well, … not _really_ real, but real like an aeon. So, we need to make another dream guardian to send to a real summoner, so he can be made into the Final Aeon to fight Sin and Lord Yevon. Jecht was the first, but it's too much for him to handle alone. So we wanted the second one to be you, but … you have to be at rest in the Farplane for it to work."

A long pause ensued before an answer came. "I'm not interested."

"You'd rather stay here like this?"

Shuyin suddenly materialized amid the pyreflies, startling the boy. "Who said _anything_ about wanting to stay like this?" he bitterly returned. "I never wanted this. I was trapped here against my will. How did you even get in?"

Bahamut backed away from Shuyin's glare and was reluctant to answer. "The summoner who set up the wards said it's your own dark emotions that imprison you. If you could let go of whatever feelings keep you here, you could rest."

"I already told you, I'm not resting until I've found Lenne."

"But you won't find her in here."

Shuyin lowered his voice to a sinister whisper as he approached. "No, but someday some fool will open that door, the magical seal will be broken, and I will be free."

"But, it's been almost a thousand years ..."

"Has it?" Shuyin laughed at the news, but it was a strange, soft laugh. "Time means nothing to me anymore. I have all the time in the world to search until I find her."

As dark as Shuyin's heart had become, Bahamut couldn't help but admire the strength of the guardian's devotion. A thousand years, and he had not given up hope. That was the kind of determination they needed to defeat Yevon. "If you had a second chance, … would you do things differently?"

"Don't you think I've wondered what would have happened if I had found the exit corridor? Or if I had hidden in the shadows with her instead of trying to use Vegnagun? Or maybe if I had just been quicker at giving the commands? If I had done just _one_ thing differently, maybe she could have lived!"

"Shuyin, … if you let go of the guilt and rest, we could offer you a second chance at life through the dream."

The malevolent spirit calmed. "You could help me save her?"

Bahamut noticed the pyreflies at the core of the unsent soul glowed with more intensity at this hopeful thought. "We can't change what's already happened, but we can try to save someone else."

"I don't want to save anyone else!" Shuyin argued, as he paced with frustration and anger. "Everything I did, I did for Lenne! If I could do it over, the only thing I'd want is to get her out of Bevelle!" The spirit stopped pacing and winced, clutching his head as if suffering some kind of severe trauma. "Because they just keep shooting her! She keeps crying, and I can't stop it. I can't do anything to help her!" He fell to his knees, distraught and still in pain, but then paused and lifted his chin, as if watching something only he could see. "And it never ends," he added with a broken whisper. "It never ends."

Bahamut thought Shuyin's fragile mind had finally snapped, but then ghostly images appeared in the pyreflies – memories of Lenne's final moments and death. Her execution was shocking and emotionally wrenching to watch. But even more disturbing, the memory didn't fade into darkness when it ended. It started over. The boy grimaced through his tears and turned away rather than watching his sister die again. "Turn it off!"

Shuyin froze the pyreflies and reached a hand to Lenne's face. "Why should I?"

"Because I don't want to see any more!" Bahamut cried and covered his eyes.

"It doesn't stop for me. I see this every day, all the time. Why should it stop for anyone else?" As Shuyin stood, his memories continued to play around him like accelerated flashes of light. "Lenne and I were unarmed, but it didn't matter. They shot us anyway." The blitzball player circled the boy to stand before him again. "Zanarkand wanted to be left alone, but it didn't matter. Bevelle attacked us anyway. Trying to solve problems peacefully doesn't accomplish anything. This world will never know peace because the peaceful people mistakenly put down their weapons and allow themselves to be ruled or killed by the aggressors. The only way for Spira to know peace is to purge the aggressors, but then whoever purges the aggressors _becomes_ the aggressors. Whoever kills the old monsters, must be willing to become the new monsters. So, there will always be aggression and hate, and it will always destroy the lives of those who want nothing more than to be left alone. Aggression always wins because the desire for peace doesn't matter half as much as the desire to conquer and control. That is the _true_ cycle of death. Killing Yu Yevon won't end the madness, … but killing Spira will." His expression and voice were void of emotion as he leaned forward, hands on knees to face his young companion. "When Spira is gone, … then all of us can truly rest."

The calm, quiet manner in which Shuyin confessed those calculated thoughts sent a chill down Bahamut's spine.

"On second thought, … maybe I am interested in your offer." Shuyin straightened. "Lord Yevon was next on my list because he's the one that sent her out there to die in the first place. Get me out of here, and I'll help you take him down."

Bahamut so badly wanted Shuyin's aid, but … not like this. "Not unless you agree to be sent."

Shuyin's brows dipped in anger again. "How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not resting until I find Lenne?"

"I can't send an unsent guardian to a summoner," Bahamut answered, drying his tears.

"So, after offering me freedom and a chance to make things right, you're going to just walk away and leave me imprisoned here?" The malevolent spirit shook his head and approached the boy to grab his arm. "I don't think so. I'll just let myself out the same way you let yourself in."

Bahamut gasped at how real and strong Shuyin's ghostly hold was. "No! No!" Panicked about what the unsent spirit might be capable of doing to him, the boy transformed into his dragon form. The dragon spirit wasn't nearly as strong as the aeon that usually got summoned into reality, but it was larger and physically stronger than the blitzball player. Placing one large hand over Shuyin's neck and shoulders to keep him in place, the dragon thrust a clawed hand through Shuyin's chest and grasped onto his soul. Shuyin cried out and tried to break away, but the dragon was too strong for him.

Bahamut could sense the light and dark emotions of the torn soul within his friend. The light half still carried the hope of being free, finding Lenne, and having peace - a testimony to the strength of his friend's loyalty and optimism. The dark half, however, had been poisoned with a hate, resentment, and helplessness so thick and tangible that it reminded him of only one other entity – Sin. Severing a small portion of the lighter half of Shuyin's soul, Bahamut gave his "big brother" one last apologetic look, then dropped his dragon form for his normal spirit form and ran through the warded door before the malevolent spirit could catch him.

Shuyin tried to run after him, but the glyphs repelled him once more as invisible chains held firm around his wrists and ankles. Dropping to his knees, the malevolent spirit drew his chains taut and strained against them. "I won't forget this, Bahamut!" Shuyin shouted with rage from within his prison. "And when I'm free, so help me, I'll find you!"

On the other side of the door, the frightened boy heard his friend's threats and looked down through his tears at the small, glowing cluster of pyreflies in his hand. It had passed through the wards, so he knew it was harmless. Maybe it would be enough to accomplish their goal. Maybe in time it could grow. But he knew that losing even a little hope, probably felt like being entombed a second time. "Forgive me, Shuyin," he whispered to the angry spirit behind the warded door. Then, with a sniffle, he carried the captured pyreflies back to the dream.

))((

Kaila stared with sad disbelief at the small glow Bahamut transferred gently into her hands. "This is ... all that's left of him?"

"No, it's just a few of the pyreflies from the core of his soul. We can't use Shuyin's memories, since he refuses to enter the Farplane and rest. We can't risk giving an unsent guardian to a summoner." Bahamut lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard by the cluster of pyreflies she held between them. "He wants to destroy Spira, Kaila. We can't let him use the dream illusion to free himself so he can hurt more people. But I thought maybe … if we could fuse our own memories with pyreflies that absorbed his lighter thoughts and feelings ..."

"But … if this is part of him, wouldn't it also be unsent?"

"Technically, … yes. But it passed through the protective wards, so its not tainted with the feelings that are keeping him chained."

"But what if he can reclaim it? Jecht had dreams in the Farplane about what his illusion was doing in reality. If Shuyin dreams about what his illusion is doing in reality, he might be able to reconnect with it and enter reality the same way Jecht did. We'll have to find some way to disconnect them, ... permanently, … if that's even possible."

Bahamut paced and gave it some thought. "Jecht's illusion had no soul, but we used his own memories. This illusion will have a bit of Shuyin's soul, but will be made from our memories. But Shuyin's soul might feed his own memories into it."

"Maybe we could ripple the dream enough to erase Shuyin's memories – or at least rearrange them. Jecht forgot he had drowned until I mentioned it. He didn't actually lose the memory, but when we changed his pattern from the past to live beyond his point of death, the new stuff covered up the bad experience."

"But some bad experiences help us grow stronger and shape us into who we are," Bahamut reminded her.

Kaila looked again at the seed of light cradled in her hands. "True. There is at least one painful memory he must keep to prevent him from turning out like Lady Yunalesca. His hate and resentment for the mistakes his dad made must stay completely in-tact ... because of what he has to do. He will have to kill his own father to defeat Sin." She saddened for their new illusion, though he wasn't even created yet. "It's too bad he can't just start over somehow and have things turn out a little differently, you know?"

Bahamut lifted his chin at her idea. "Maybe he can. Maybe if we back up far enough, we can rewrite his story. How old was he when you first met him?"

She smiled. "That's easy. Shuyin, Koji, and I were all four years old. It was our first swim lessons, and he cried because he was afraid of the water."

Bahamut blinked at that unlikely claim. "Shuyin? Afraid of water? You're kidding."

She laughed lightly. "I'll show you." Together they went to the community pool, and Kaila recalled her memory of her first meeting with Shuyin.

Just as Jecht and his son arrived, however, Bahamut stopped time. "Let's put his soul in this younger memory and see what happens. Oh, and you should probably remove yourself and your brother from the picture. I'll remove myself and Lenne if we make it that far. Shuyin's feelings of loyalty are so strong that his relationships here might interfere with the illusion's ability to form attachments in reality. He might try to come home, like Jecht did, rather than doing whatever it takes to protect his new friends out there. He's still looking for Lenne after a thousand years."

Kaila sighed. "This is going to be harder than I thought, but I suppose you're right." After removing the images of herself and her brother from her projected memory, she crouched in front of little Shuyin and smiled at how sweet he looked back then. However, she puzzled over the fragile cluster of magic in her hand. "I can summon pyreflies to recall memories, but … I don't know anything about summoning souls."

"Let me try." Bahamut had no memories of Shuyin at this age, but he knew a little about how to call souls and shape pyreflies, thanks to the apprentice training and natural talent he had before he died. Taking the soul seed from her, he suspended it above the head of the small boy from Kaila's memory. Then, he gently set the pyreflies carrying part of Shuyin's real soul within the pyreflies of the illusion and cast a summoning spell to fuse them together.

When he was done, Kaila moved to stand before her memory once more, but was puzzled again. "Something's … different. It looks like him, but it's not exactly him. He's still Shuyin, right?"

Bahamut studied the slightly new features of the redrawn illusion. "I don't know," he admitted. "Shuyin's soul is fused with your memory and my magic." He released his hold on time, and watched with curiosity as the boy walked right through them to sign in with the swim instructor.

When Jecht was done speaking with the instructor, he crouched before the boy. "Do what she says, and no crying. I mean it. You're king of the pool, remember? King Tidus of the sun and the waves." He took the boy's towel, gave his back a light push, and slapped his backside to send him on his way. "I'll be sitting over there," he called back to him, heading to the benches near the wall.

The small boy watched his dad leave him alone to face the other children sitting on the side of the pool. With his head hung low, he walked to the end of their line and sat down by himself.

The rest of the lesson went exactly as Kaila remembered it, and Bahamut was amused to see just how much the blitzball star used to be afraid of water. However, this time no one offered little Shuyin candy when he was done. No one befriended him, and he walked away from the lesson upset, rather than hopeful. Kaila flashed Bahamut a worried expression. "He looks so lonely and resentful."

"It can't be helped - not with Jecht." Bahamut stopped time to take another look at the little boy's face. "But he's acting like a four-year-old, rather than a trapped, unsent spirit. Do you realize what this means?"

"It means we _can _alter a soul's memories, just like an illusion's."

"It means he's almost a whole new person!" Bahamut exclaimed in wonder. "He looks different, acts different, will have different memories -"

"We can't make a whole new person out of Shuyin's soul," she protested. "Our souls are the essence of who we are. Besides, we want him to retain his sense of self so he can resist Yevon."

"He's still Shuyin deep down. This is just a ... new version of him, … a neo-genesis!"

"Neo-what?" She wasn't sure she liked the sound of that.

"Shuyin's pattern is still there because it's his soul, but we can write new memories for him - a whole new beginning - rather than making him pick up where he died, like what happened with Jecht."

"But, ... it will take a long time for Shuyin to live his life over again. We don't have much time before Sin starts picking targets again."

"We can use the time flow to speed things up a bit." Bahamut released time to see if any other ripples had been created due to their subtle alteration.

"Let's go, Tidus!" Jecht impatiently growled at his son.

The boy balanced on one prune-wrinkled foot to inspect the bottom of the other for a moment.

"Any day now!" He called again in warning.

The boy ran on his toes across the rough tile to the door where his dad was waiting and they both exited the building.

"Tidus." Kaila repeated the nickname his father had called him. "If he is someone new and different; he deserves a new name."

"We can ripple the dream to erase all references to Shuyin and replace them with Tidus," he suggested.

Kaila smiled, but then her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh my gosh! I just realized my memories stop after they leave the pool! If we lose the illusion, will we lose his soul, too?"

Bahamut hadn't considered the continuity problem with working out of Kaila's memories, rather than Shuyin's. They both ran out of the building, anxious to see if Shuyin's soul disappeared with his illusion, but to their surprise, Jecht and Tidus were both existing beyond her memory. Father and son stepped inside the transport to go home. "Shuyin's supplying his own memories, after all – which means we will definitely have to keep an eye on Tidus to make sure he remains a separate person."

"In other words, if he starts remembering he's Shuyin, we're in trouble, right?"

Bahamut remembered the way the unsent spirit was threatening him and nodded in uneasy agreement. "Big trouble."

))((

Auron's ghost stood alone on the coast of the Zanarkand ruins and watched as Sin basked silently in the calm seas. "It's been ten long years," he spoke as he strode into the water. "But I haven't forgotten." Diving into the waves, he swam toward the large beast, determined to get close enough to touch it.

Sin turned on him and thrashed, stirring up turbulent waves to keep him away.

Struggling against the dangerous waves, Auron dove underneath Sin and grabbed onto part of the creature's fin. As he fought to hold on, the toxin that washed over him dragged him through an insane range of emotions until his awareness faded out and in several times, and he lost consciousness.

When Auron awakened, he was alone on a strange, clouded path covered in spiraling magical wards that included many symbols of the Temple of Yevon. Shaking his head to clear his senses, he stood and looked around. The foggy, foreign landscape seemed to exist endlessly in all directions. Was he dreaming? Or was this place real? "Jecht!"

"Auron, you old stick in the mud! It's good to see you again!" The blitzball player materialized before him, laughed, and grasped both of his shoulders in a hearty greeting. "Woah, looks like you had an unforgiving run-in with something nasty. Where'd you get that big ol' scar down your face?"

Auron sighed with relief at his success in reaching his long, lost friend. "A token from an argument with Lady Yunalesca. I went back to protest her deception after you left and Braska died, but I didn't survive the encounter." He looked at their strange surroundings. "What is this place? Is this the Farplane?"

"You're inside Sin, but this is as far as you go, old friend. Beyond this point, the fiends absorbed by Sin get bigger and nastier than anything found in the Zanarkand ruins."

"But I've waited a whole decade for you to resurface so I could keep my promise. If you were right about Sin being the key to your living Zanarkand -"

"I was right, … but not quite the way I imagined. Come with me. I'll explain along the way." Jecht led Auron back down the path toward Sin's mouth, rather than inviting him further into the beast's inner world of chaos.

))((

Bahamut watched quietly from the pier as young Tidus placed his foot on his blitzball to position it just right.

Tidus backed up and took a short run to kick it, but he missed and fell down, instead. Standing up, he stared at the ball with a discouraged, heavy sigh. He didn't notice that his father had come onto the deck beside him, until he looked up and found him mocking his discouraged stance. Jecht ridiculed the boy, telling him he couldn't do his signature shot and then showed him the right way to do it, but Tidus turned his back on the man while he was showing off. He steamed silently to himself and then went inside, straight to the digital screens to see what programs were on. Jecht's illusion disappeared since Tidus was no longer there to sustain it.

Bahamut froze time as he saw Kaila and Valefor coming toward him. "Jecht really was a jerk to him sometimes. No wonder he hated him."

"But Jecht was fun, too. Where do you think Shuyin got his sense of humor?" Kaila smiled lightly.

"How is Tidus's time line coming along?" he asked.

"Well, I found his mother's memories and backed up to change his name at birth, so everyone will know him as Tidus now. I left most of the unimportant stuff alone, but there's a few memories I felt needed to be cut. It's unavoidable that he will have gaps where I spliced out memories, but even real people don't actively remember _everything_ that happened to them. So, maybe he won't notice."

"On this end, he's still flowing along a solid pattern and we've filled in enough of the world around him that he seems to believe it's real. He's seven now, by the way." He paused and noticed that the girls seemed to be in a rather somber mood. "Is something wrong?"

The girls looked at each other, then Valefor spoke. "Remember Lord Braska's daughter? She's decided to become a summoner, like her father. She began her final level of apprenticeship training today, and ... I think she's strong enough to do it."

"Yuna?" Bahamut couldn't help but smile, remembering the little girl.

"She lives in Besaid now," Valefor informed him.

Kaila faced the cabin door. "Do you think ... maybe Yuna would accept Tidus as her guardian, the way her father so easily accepted Jecht?"

"Did you have any other summoner in mind for him?" Valefor asked.

"No, not really," Bahamut answered. "Since their fathers walked that path together, it's worth a try. Keep me updated on her progress, okay? I'll keep pushing Tidus from this end. He'll have to grow up quickly if he's going to make it to her in time to do this."

"You're putting a lot of heart into this, Bahamut." Valefor smiled. "I'm sure it will be worth the effort for one more try."

The boy was encouraged by her support. "Let's hope so."

"Maybe I can help."

All three Fayth turned around and were surprised to be joined by Auron and Jecht. Valefor looked at the scar with worry. "But, Auron, you're ..."

"Unsent," he confirmed her suspicion. "But not all unsent spirits are malevolent. Some of us just have promises to keep."

Jecht grinned and slapped a hand onto Auron's shoulder. "He made a promise to watch over my boy, and now the bastard's come all this way intending to keep it."

"Where's the boy?" Auron asked.

"Shuyin died during the Machina War, but Tidus is inside the houseboat. Tidus is an illusion made from part of Shuyin's soul. It's hard to explain because they come from the same soul, but we want to keep them apart as two different people." Bahamut faced the blitzball legend. "Jecht, Tidus is still your son, but please, ... don't say anything about Shuyin in his presence. In his world, there is no Shuyin. There is only Tidus. He will find out the truth about himself when the time is right, but until then, we need him to believe he is real."

Jecht nodded in understanding and looked at the cabin door, knowing his son was on the other side - so close, and yet so far away. "There will be time for a reunion when this is over. Let me know when he's ready. It's getting more difficult to break away from Yevon's control, so I need him ... to end it. You understand? Oh, and ... maybe give him this." He unstrapped his longsword from his back and passed it to Auron. "I don't really need it anymore, but ... he will." He took one last look at the door and then his spirit faded from view, leaving the dream.

"Well, looks like we have a big ripple on the way." Bahamut looked to the unsent soul that stood among them. "Shuyin didn't know you. How can we get Tidus to accept you as his guardian?"

Auron looked down at the red-and-black-bladed sword in his hands. "I've waited ten years. I can lay low a little longer, until I'm needed."

"Actually, that will probably be real soon," Kaila sadly reminded them. "If Tidus is seven, Jecht won't be around for much longer. And after his father leaves, his mother will follow. Since Koji won't be there for him this time, ... he could use a friend, so that he doesn't suffer alone."

))((

Jecht had been missing for two weeks, but, as if nothing were amiss, Tidus was out on the boat deck, practicing his volleys with a blitzball. Auron watched him for a few minutes from across the pier where he stood with Kaila and Bahamut. Then, he glanced between them and headed toward the boy. "Tidus?"

The boy dropped the ball and looked up at the stranger with worry as he bent to stop it from rolling away. "Yeah?"

Auron smiled lightly at the youngster. "You're Jecht's son, right?"

Worry immediately shifted into tolerant displeasure as he lifted his ball and stood. "Yeah."

"I have a message for your mother. Is she home right now?"

"Yeah."

The warrior monk nodded in gratitude and headed for the door.

"Wait! You can't just walk into my house. My mom's not feeling well right now."

Auron was surprised at the runt's protective nature. "She's upset that your father's missing."

"Yeah." If it weren't for a change of tone in each response, the boy's repetitive answers would have sounded like a broken recording.

The unsent spirit crouched to meet the golden-headed boy face-to-face. He could see Jecht in Tidus's expressions, though he shared nothing of his father's dark brown hair and eyes. "May I see her anyway? My message is rather urgent."

"Well, maybe you should tell me, and then I could tell her."

"It's also very private. I really need to talk to her."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Auron. I'm a friend of the family … from ... many years back."

"I never saw my dad hang out with you."

"I knew him in a different place and time before you existed."

The boy's expression softened slightly. "Do you know what happened to him?"

Auron pressed his lips together and chose his words carefully. "I'm afraid I wasn't there when he disappeared."

Tidus openly stared at the big scar that permanently closed one of the man's eyes.

It wasn't hard for Auron to guess what held the boy's rapt attention. "I guess I look pretty scary, huh? I can't blame you for being cautious, but I won't hurt your mother. I promise. I just want to talk to her. I'll wait here, and you can bring her to me, if that would make you feel any better."

"Okay, but you wait _right here_." Tidus adamantly pointed to the pier.

Auron smiled to himself at the authoritative command. "Waiting."

Tidus walked away, but looked over his shoulder with suspicion a couple of times. He disappeared inside and came back out a few minutes later followed by a woman with blue eyes and light brown hair that looked as if it might have been as blond as the boy's when she was younger.

Dannae approached the stranger with just as much caution as her son. "Yes?"

Auron sighed to himself at her obviously emotional condition. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Dannae. My name is Auron. I was a friend of Jecht's."

A glow came to her eyes that had been missing for two weeks. "You were? Do you ... have word? Do you know what happened to him?"

"Can we talk privately?"

"Yes, ... please, come inside," Dannae answered. Tidus started to follow them in, but she cut him off at the door. "Just a sec, dear. Stay out here and play, okay. I need to talk to Auron, alone."

"But -" The door was shut in his face. The boy growled to himself and stomped to the upper deck hoping they heard every step through the ceiling. Then, he firmly set his blitzball down and sat on it, dropping his chin into his hands with a frustrated pout.

Kaila couldn't help but snicker, as she and Bahamut came near to watch for extenuating ripples due to Auron's intervention. "I'm sorry. I know this is no laughing matter, but that was _sooo_ him."

))((

Inside the houseboat, Auron followed Dannae to the sofa and sat down next to her. Her eyes revealed her longing for any news on her husband, and Auron found himself wondering how much he should say to help put her mind at ease. "What I'm about to tell you is strictly confidential. You can't even tell your son, but I want to put your worry to rest. Jecht told me that he went to train in the ocean once and touched Sin."

"Sin?"

"Sin is ... a monster, of sorts, made from the souls of the dead. It lives under the waters off the coast of Zanarkand. Sin pulled Jecht out of your world and into mine."

"Your world?"

Auron allowed himself to dispel his pyreflies slightly for a moment, to show her that he was actually a ghost.

Dannae gasped and drew away in fear.

Auron called his illusion back. "Don't be afraid, ... please. I'm here to help. Jecht often thought of Tidus and you, and his last wish was that his son be taken care of. So, I'm here to offer my services to you for that purpose. If there is anything you need - anything at all - for yourself or him, please, don't hesitate to ask."

Dannae put a hand to her mouth and closed her eyes tightly trying to hold back the tears. "Are you ... certain Jecht is ... is ...?"

"He died honorably, defeating Sin, so that everyone else could be safe for a time." Auron unstrapped the longsword sheath that he carried next to his own and passed it to her. "He said to give this to his son. Since he knew he couldn't come back, he asked me to watch over him. I promised I would."

Dannae accepted the familiar sword and allowed her tears to fall, but tried to wipe them away as quickly as they came. "Tidus hates his father. He resents who he is. He will resent you since you are Jecht's friend."

"I'm prepared to accept that."

Dannae broke into sobs. "Without Jecht, how will I ever ...? I can't take care of him alone."

"You must try. He needs his mother."

Dannae managed to quiet her emotions for a moment before speaking again. "Thank you. ... Thank you, Auron. Please visit as often as you like. My home is your home."

"I'll check in often to see if you need anything," he told her, though she did not respond. She needed to be alone with her grief, so Auron stood and headed back outside. Now came the hard part.

))((

He didn't see the boy until he turned around and discovered that he was being glared at from the upper deck of the boat. "Tidus, you should stay out here for a bit longer. Your mother is very upset right now."

"Well, I _told_ you that when you came here."

Auron sighed. The boy already had his father's headstrong attitude. After a moment of questioning his own sanity for promising to take care of Mini-Jecht, he decided the only way to say this was to just say it. "I'm going to be helping your mother take care of you, now that your dad's gone. So, if there's anything you need -"

"What?" The boy stood up in protest. "I don't want a new dad. I don't even know you."

"I'm not trying to take the place of your dad."

Tidus was suspicious of the man when they first met, but now he simply didn't like him. "Then, stop dating my mom."

Auron's brow quirked at the saucy retort. "I'm not dating your mom. I promised your dad I'd watch over you."

"Well, I didn't need him, so I don't need you!"

"Not _your_ decision to make, I'm afraid," the warrior monk answered in a firm tone.

"_Mooooooom!_" Tidus ran down the stairs, intending to talk some sense into her for agreeing to this. Then, he turned around and ran back up to grab his ball before the strange man could do anything harmful to it. After giving the warrior monk one more glare, the boy ran down to the lower deck again and went inside, banging the front door behind himself.

Kaila and Bahamut drew near with doubtful expressions.

"Well, that went over well, don't you think?" Auron sat down on one of the steps and took a sip from the jug he carried on his belt, as he braced himself for more of the boy's inevitable protests.


	31. Chapter 31: Ripple

Chapter 31: Ripple

When the time flow for Tidus was forwarded through one week, Kaila and Bahamut decided Auron should pay another visit. "We have a big ripple to cope with now because you told Dannae what happened to Jecht. She's ready to give up on life, but it's too soon," Bahamut told him.

"Not knowing ... That would seem worse to me," Auron explained his reasoning, as he leaned his back against the wall of the building behind him.

Kaila smiled sympathetically at Auron's compassion for the woman he only recently met. "I know. But by not knowing, she kept hoping Jecht would return. She stayed around for Shuyin, so that he could grow up and be independent. Now, she has no hope of seeing her husband again, and she's ready to die, even though Tidus is still a little boy."

"What should I do?" Auron no longer assumed he knew how to handle this strange task in an even stranger world, but even the Fayth didn't seem to know what might happen next.

Kaila sat down on the ground and tried to think through the events that really happened, wondering how things would change for Tidus if Dannae died this soon. "Keep trying to gain his trust, and try to talk Dannae out of her decision. Her mind is already made up to follow her pattern, but we need her to hold on as long as possible - preferably as long as she did before. Tidus needs to be at least sixteen before his mother dies."

"If you can alter the dream, why can't you just remove my mistake?"

"There's a continuum going on here for Tidus that's hard to explain," Bahamut answered. "He's more than just an illusion. If we erase something that he's already aware of, he'll notice it. Dannae's mind is already too far gone; she's already neglecting him because of her depression. If we erase what you said to her, so that she gets better all of a sudden, he may get suspicious. The thing you need to remember here is that Dannae is just an illusion, but Tidus's soul is real. Dannae wouldn't have even been in there to speak with you if we had not decided to activate her memories into this after a couple of close calls on gaps."

Auron sighed. "This is complicated."

Kaila lifted her brows. "I know. But if she dies early, Tidus will be left to fend for himself at age seven. In reality, the temple came to claim Shuyin, but we can't let that happen this time. It's too much of a drastic difference from the pattern, especially at such a young age. He needs to grow up in his home, … but you're all that he has. Just don't let him know what happened to his dad yet, and don't let him see his mother's death first-hand. It was too painful, and he ended up blaming himself."

The warrior monk accepted their advice, then straightened and crossed the pier to visit Dannae and her son once more. He found Tidus outside on the deck again, but this time, the boy was standing very still, looking rather lost, as he stared at the ocean. Auron knew the boy was worried about his mother. "Is she all right?"

"Why should you care?" Tidus returned.

Again with the defensiveness ... "If she dies, I wouldn't know what to do."

Tidus turned to face him in anger. "Don't say Mom is gonna die!"

Auron realized he had made another mistake. "I apologize."

Upset, Tidus ran inside.

The warrior monk sighed in disgust. "I did this all wrong," he muttered to himself. "I should have taken Yuna to Besaid and let Kimahri handle Jecht Jr." Resigned to resolve this, Auron let himself inside. Dannae wasn't anywhere around, so he supposed she was on the lower level, but he guessed the boy went to his room. Stopping outside the boy's door, he found him crying quietly into the pillow on his bed. "Tidus ..."

"What do you want?" the boy's muffled voice challenged as he faced the wall.

"I want to talk to you."

"Why?"

"Because this door isn't very interesting." When a long moment of silence followed, Auron walked in and sat down on the edge of the bed at the boy's feet, but he said nothing. Sitting in patient silence, but being completely foreign to this parenting thing, the warrior monk asked himself what Jecht might do or say if he were here, then he decided to consider what Braska would do, instead. But he wasn't either of those men, and he suddenly felt inadequate trying to fill their shoes.

Finally, Tidus pushed himself up on his elbows and looked over his shoulder at the man. "What are you doing?" he complained about his silent presence.

"Waiting for you to finish, so we can talk."

The boy sniffled and rubbed an eye to wipe away his tears before he got fussed at for crying, but a stray still rolled down his cheek. "Is my mom going to die?"

He supposed giving the kid the straightforward truth wasn't the right thing to do, … but neither was lying to him. "She's very sad right now. She probably feels like dying, but we don't want her to give up hope yet. So, instead of letting her dwell on what she's lost, we need to help her realize what she has. She still has you, ... right?"

Tidus pushed himself to sit up and dangled his legs over the side of the bed. "I guess so." He folded his hands between his skinned knees.

Auron studied the sad little boy and considered his future within the confinement of the dream and the plans of the Fayth for him beyond it. "Everything's going to be okay. You can't control everything that happens to you, but no matter what happens, you can turn it into something good. Believe in yourself."

The boy sniffled and wiped at his tears again, but he had nothing further to say to the stranger.

After another long moment of silence, Auron stood and left the boy's room, careful to pull the door shut behind him to give him some privacy.

Auron checked on Tidus once a week for a couple of weeks after that, until Dannae's rapidly failing health made it necessary for him to check in every day. Within another week, Auron began sleeping on the sofa in order to get the boy off to school in the mornings and prevent him from being completely neglected at meals.

))((

The following weekend morning, Tidus woke and dressed himself in his Sea Stars blitzball uniform before running into the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. He buttered some toast for the mini-oven and grabbed a plum from the fruit basket to eat while he waited for his toast to cook. Sweet, sticky juice from the overripe plum dripped down his fingers, but he wiped them on his clean shirt as he hummed to himself between bites. When the timer dinged, without a second thought, he reached a bare hand into the mini-oven to grab his toast. "Ouch!" He dropped the toast on the floor and jerked his hand back at the intense sting. Sucking air through his teeth to try to keep from crying, Tidus looked at his burnt fingers and saw red welts already forming puffy blisters.

Setting down his half-eaten plum, the boy cradled his wounded hand to his chest and entered the living room to look at the warrior monk on one of the long, curved sofas. Since he had come to stay with them, the man had spent most of his time talking with his mother in private, or sitting alone on the deck staring out at sea. Auron was an utterly confusing and annoying enigma because he never said anything, and when he did it was … weird. But he happened to be convenient at the moment, so, Tidus drew near and poked him on the shoulder. "Auron?"

"Mmph, nh-hn ..." The warrior monk muttered a muffled, reluctant response without moving.

Tidus used a sticky finger to pry open his one good eye. "Hey, are you awake?"

The warrior monk frowned at the boy and pushed his hand away. "I am now." He shifted on the sofa to see what the boy wanted. "What are you doing up so early? It's not a school day. Grown-ups like to do this thing called 'sleeping in' on the weekends."

"I burnt my fingers." Tidus showed him the injured digits.

"Run them under cold water."

"I need a bandage."

Auron grasped the boy's wrist and narrowed his good eye on the red marks. "You don't need a bandage. Run them under cold water," he repeated after seeing the minor injury. Then, he rolled over, pulled his red haori further up to his neck like a blanket, and tried to go back to sleep.

"But they hurt really bad like they're on fire."

The warrior monk could tell he would have no peace about this until he actively did something. Sighing to himself and shrugging off the haori, he padded sleepily into the kitchen. "A bandage isn't going to make it feel any better," he told the boy who followed at his heels. "You need to put something cold on it."

"You mean like when I sunburn and my mom puts an ice rag on my back?"

Auron cast the boy a doubtful side-glance at the strange remedy suggestion, but then plunged the burnt fingers under a cold, running stream at the sink. Then, he groaned to himself as he bent to pick up the toast that had landed butter-side-down on the floor. "Do you have a game today?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know." Auron tossed the toast in the trash and grabbed a wet cloth to hand to the boy to make him clean up his own mess. Then, he turned off the water and grabbed a towel to dry his hand. "Why do you have your uniform on if you don't know?"

"Because I like it. I like playing blitzball. My dad used to say I'm not very good at it, but I think I am. I'm just not as good as him yet because he's bigger. But someday when I get as big as my dad, I'll do those shots better than he did!" he emphatically informed the sleepy warrior monk. "I'm going to learn the sphere shot and the Jecht shot, and - that's my dad's own shot, you know. Do you play blitzball? You don't look like you'd be any fun to play blitzball with." Tidus took the rag and bent to wipe up the butter. "I guess it doesn't matter since you're not one of the Abes. I know all the Abes because my dad used to take me to his games, until I started playing my own. Then they put our games on the same days, and he had to go to his own games because he'd get fired if he didn't. But they said they were going to fire him anyway because he was drinking really bad. He promised he would quit, but he never quit. So, I don't care if he's gone." His brows dipped in a frown. "I hate him. And you can tell him that, too! He's always drinking and being mean to me and mom, but she likes him anyway. How can she like him when he's so mean to her? He's only nice when he's fishing. And even then he sometimes yelled at me for being too noisy and scaring the fish away. Do you like fishing?" He paused in wiping the butter from the floor and looked up at Auron.

Auron blinked at the boy's early morning chatter as if he'd been listening to squirrel fuss at him for getting too close to his acorn. "What did you do? Drink ten cups of coffee already?"

Tidus's brows lifted at the unexpected answer. "Huh?"

Auron shook his head. "If I could bottle it and sell it, I'd make a million."

"Bottle what? You mean like my dad's beer?"

"Never mind."

The boy pinched the wet rag between two fingers and left it unrinsed and bunched on the counter top. "Can I have a bandage now? My fingers hurt."

Auron rubbed a palm over his sleepy face, and then surrendered to the boy's persistence. "Fine. Where does your mom keep the bandages?"

"In the bathroom up high where I can't reach the medicines. But if I climb on the sink, I can reach them. Did you know I can climb the walls in the hallway? I put one foot and hand on one wall, and one foot and hand on the other, and I can walk right up them to the ceiling like a spider!"

The warrior monk grumbled something about squashing spiders who wake up too early on weekends and left to get the first aid kit.

Tidus shrugged, picked up his plum again, and tried to suck more juice from it. While he studied his burn marks, his mother came into the kitchen. Tidus lifted his chin to watch her. She had been acting really strange and sleeping a lot lately. It was a little scary to see her vacant expression, like she wasn't even in her body anymore. "Mom, are you coming to my game today?" When she didn't respond, he was disappointed, but approached to show her his fingers. "I burnt myself making toast. It really hurts."

"Yes, .. it hurts." She shook her head and started to cry. "I can't do this anymore. I'm so sorry."

"Do what?"

"But, you'll do just fine, Tidus. I know it. He'll help you."

The boy was confused at her increasingly disjointed conversations, but he figured she was talking about Auron in some way. "Oh yeah, he's loads of help," Tidus sarcastically answered. "He didn't even want to give me a bandage." Discouraged and impatient, the boy left the kitchen to meet him in the living room as he was coming back.

Auron opened the first aid kit, removed a bandage, and dropped the rest of the box on the sofa. Pulling off the sterile tabs, he placed the bandage on the back of the boy's hand. "There. A bandage. Happy?"

The boy stared at the bandage with confusion. "That's not where my burn is."

"I'm not putting a bandage on burn blisters. Just keep them dry and clean, and -" The sound of glass shattering in the kitchen interrupted him. Auron froze. Kaila had warned him what signs to look for in Dannae's behavior so he could tell when the suicide was coming.

The boy scrunched up his face and moved past him to see what his mother had dropped.

"Tidus!" Auron sharply called and grabbed his arm to stop him from entering the kitchen. He was ready to physically block him, if necessary. "I'll help your mother." He dug into his pocket for some gil and deposited a handful in the boy's superfluously bandaged hand. Then, he took him by the arm again and walked him to the front door. "Go to the shopette down the street and buy a bottle of healing potion for your fingers. You can use what's leftover to buy yourself a treat."

Tidus almost argued with him, but the strength of the warrior monk's presence made him think twice about it this time. Slightly intimidated, the boy picked up his shoes. He slipped them on without untying them and cast one glance up at Auron's strange change of mood, but then he left.

))((

Auron drew a sigh of relief once Tidus was gone. Then, he turned around and entered the kitchen. He knew what to expect, thanks to conversations with Kaila. Walking to Dannae, he knelt beside her and lifted her shoulders to lean against him.

"Tidus?" she whispered.

"Auron," he corrected.

The woman squeezed her eyes shut against her tears. "I loved them both so much."

"I know you did, Dannae. We'll try hard to resolve this mess, so you can be with them again."

Bahamut and Kaila revealed themselves to Auron, as Dannae released her pain with a sigh.

"End her suffering. Call a summoner to send her, so that she doesn't linger," Auron requested, though he himself was unsent.

"This Zanarkand doesn't have summoners," Bahamut informed him. "There's no need since everyone but Tidus is just an illusion. Her soul is already in the Farplane." They all watched as Dannae's body dispersed into pyreflies, and the evidence of her suicide was removed as if it had never happened. Even the broken glass was gone.

Kaila couldn't help but remember her own experience with this memory. "This is going to cause a major ripple between Shuyin's lifeline and Tidus's, but this way, Tidus won't be haunted by guilt over it the way Shuyin was."

"How do I … tell him?"

"Don't worry about finding the right words. Just be there for him."

Some time later, when Tidus returned home, he kicked off his shoes and ran to where Auron sat on the sofa. "I got the healing potion." He deposited a bag in Auron's lap. "And I got some gum." He grinned to show off the blue wad between his teeth that had dyed his teeth, tongue, and lips blue. "And I got this really neat comic! See? It's got -"

"Tidus," Auron interrupted. "We need to talk." Unsure of how to deliver the news, he opened the bag and removed the bottle of healing potion - obviously the most expensive bottle the boy could find, since he only had enough spare gil for buying the gum and the comic. The boy was still young enough that he had no common sense on how to spend money wisely yet, but that had not been the point of this shopping trip. "Your mother just passed away. She's already been taken to the temple for burial at sea." It was a lie, but it was the only thing he could think of to ward off questions about seeing her. "I'm sorry."

The boy's brows rose at the unexpected news, and he shook his head in disbelief. Then, he pitched his comic to the floor and ran down into the lower bedroom. When he saw that his mother wasn't there, he ran back up to the kitchen. But, she wasn't there either. Returning to the living room, he was still struggling between denial and realization that it was true. "She's really dead?"

Auron gave a small nod in answer to the boy's painful question.

"But I bought her some healing potion to make her all better, and I ran back as fast as I could."

Auron looked down at the bottle again, surprised to learn the flaw in his thinking concerning its value. "You … spent all that money on a potion for _her_?" Uncapping it, he knelt before the boy and applied some of it to the burn marks on his small fingers, healing them within seconds. "This potion couldn't have helped her, no matter how fast you ran. Her hurt was too deep for any potion."

Tidus's heart constricted as he felt a rush of fear, sorrow, anger, and shock all at once overwhelming him. He felt helpless to stem the flow of tears burning in his eyes. "But I didn't even get to say goodbye."

"Her last words were that she loved you and your father very much." Auron capped the bottle.

Sitting down on the floor and drawing his knees to his head, Tidus began to cry.

Auron felt somewhat awkward about what to do next. He had purposefully kept his distance from the boy to avoid questions about his father, but in the past several weeks, he had come to know the boy just enough to truly sympathize with him. Shifting down to the floor to sit beside him, he rested a hand on Tidus's scruffy blond head.

Kaila, who had been at the back of the room with Bahamut, came forward and knelt behind the boy to give him a gentle hug. Even though he couldn't see her or feel her touch, she wished there was some way she could comfort him.

Maybe Tidus did feel her embrace somehow, or maybe Auron just happened to be convenient again, but for whatever reason, the boy unfolded and crawled to Auron's chest to continue grieving. Auron accepted him and let him cry until he exhausted himself. Then, he lifted the boy in his arms and carried him to his bed, so he could nap.

"Auron, where do people go when they die?" Tidus quietly asked as he released the man's neck and looked up to him for a definite answer.

The question caught the unsent man off-guard. There was no quick and easy answer, but perhaps an answer wasn't what the boy wanted right now. "They go where their hearts lead them."

"She must have gone back to my dad, then," the boy figured with a hint of resentment in his voice. "Do you think they can see me where they are?"

"I think that they wish they could." Auron straightened and started to leave.

"Auron? Will you come to my game today if I have one, ... since my mom won't be there?"

"You don't have to go to a game today, Tidus. I'm sure your coach and team will understand why you didn't show."

The boy seemed relieved to hear that. He didn't feel much like playing blitzball right now, even if he did already have his uniform on. "Will you come to my next game?"

Auron remembered Jecht lamenting once that he had not seen very many of his son's games. "I'll be there."

Accepting that, the boy rolled onto his side to face the wall and be alone with his grief.

Auron pulled his door shut and turned around as Bahamut and Kaila revealed themselves. "He handled that amazingly well this time." Kaila gave him a hug. "Thank you, Auron."

))((

Tidus was ready to return to school and blitzball only a week after the tragedy. He reluctantly came to accept Auron as his temporary guardian. At the very least, he no longer complained about him being an unwelcome guest in his home. Auron was slower to adapt to the pseudo-parent situation he suddenly found himself in, but he gradually got the hang of the boy's daily routines and helped him stick to them. His routine was easy, even if he was not. His days centered around a full day of school and blitzball practice, and then he usually played by himself outside until dark. Getting him to eat his dinner was easy. Getting him to do his homework was hard.

The Fayth found themselves pleasantly surprised at the boy's resilience. Without Jecht around to frustrate and mock him, and without Dannae's gloom to drag him down, Tidus's true energy and optimism soon began to shine - to the point where Auron sometimes wondered if he didn't prefer the quiet, angry child who had nothing to say to him. Those were usually the not-so-normal days that Auron had to learn to cope with, like the time that Tidus pushed open the front door and peered inside to make sure the living room was empty before trotting a big, wet, reddish-brown dog through the house. Auron didn't suspect a thing until the excessive thudding and jumping from the boy's bedroom began to grate his nerves while he was trying to read in the kitchen. Then, after a loud crash that sounded distinctly like something broke, he decided enough was enough.

Putting down his reading, the warrior monk headed to the boy's bedroom door and banged a fist on it. "Quiet down in there or any furniture that you break comes out of your allowance," he bellowed. The room got very quiet very quickly, except for one distinct bark. "No, he didn't."

Auron grasped the door knob and found the boy sitting on his bed in front of a rumpled heap of blanket that owned a wagging tail. Tidus was still wearing his school clothes, but he was soaked from head to toe, as if he'd just come from a blitzball game. His face was streaked with dirt and he had a new scrape on his forehead. The boy was constantly banging himself up in one way or another.

"Can I have a dog?" Tidus asked, unaware that the evidence of his scheme was so obvious.

Auron frowned. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because _you_ are enough to have to clean up after. Take it back outside."

"Take what back outside?"

"The dog."

"I don't have a dog. That's why I'm asking for one." The boy was dead serious. "Can I _please_ have a dog? I'll take care of it. I promise."

Auron frowned and pushed the door open against the keyboard that now lay broken on the floor under a blitzball - obviously what he had heard fall.

Tidus read what the man was thinking by the look on his face. "I never used it much anyway."

Auron stepped over the keyboard, walked to the bed, and jerked the covers from the bundle behind the boy, receiving a happy bark from the dog in the process. There was mud all over the sheets underneath. "Get it out of the house, Tidus."

"Awww, man ..." The boy stood and took his time dragging the dog off of the bed since the dog thought it was a game. "I thought of a really cool name for him. I could call him Blitzer. He likes to play blitzball, and he can swim really good."

Auron began stripping the bedding. "Well, that explains the wet dog smell."

"Our neighbor, Old Man Rane, has a goldfish pond at the end of the pier, and Blitzer wanted to play with the fish. He jumped in, and I didn't know he could swim, so I jumped in to pull him back out."

Auron's brow twitched. Well, that explained the mud, too. "Old Man Rane probably won't be happy to hear that."

"He wasn't. He chased us away and called us bad words because Blitzer caught one of his fish. But Blitzer didn't know it was a pet. He was just trying to hunt for dinner. Can we eat it for dinner?"

"Eat what?" Auron asked, dreading the answer.

Tidus reached into his drawer and pulled out a large, very dead, red and white koi.

Auron's hand went to his forehead and then slid down over his mouth in an effort to keep himself from shouting the same foul words that Old Man Rane had probably used. "Get the dog out of the house _now!_"

Tidus's lips pursed in a pout, as he plunked the dead fish on his mattress. "My mom would have let me keep him." But, he obediently took the dog to the front door to let him out.

"And take a bath," Auron called after him.

"It's not my bath time," Tidus protested from the living room before coming back to his door.

"It is now. You smell like wet dog and dead fish."

"What if I don't want to take a bath?" Tidus defiantly puffed out his chest and crossed his arms.

"I really don't care what you want."

"If I had a dog to play with, I'd be willing to take my baths like I should. I'd even be willing to do my homework." The boy grinned, as if the grin would make his proposition easier to buy.

"And if I dunk you in the ocean, you can play with the sharks, instead." Auron gave him a counter offer with a look of warning, as he gathered the muddy sheets into his arms.

The boy's eyes widened, and he quickly exited to go run his bath water.

"A dog ..." Auron shook his head, grabbed the dead koi, and took the dirty sheets to the washer. "Spent my life training to fight fiends, and now I'm washing sheets because of a smelly, wet dog." Auron dumped them in the washer and turned the water on. "Can't you guys speed things up a little better around here?" he fussed at the unseen Fayth that he knew were hanging around somewhere. Slapping the dead fish onto the counter, he stared at it as if it were to blame for enticing the boy.

Kaila and Bahamut appeared with amused expressions, and Kaila laughed aloud. "Aw, but he was a cute dog."

Irritated, Auron picked up the fish and waggled it in her face. "He stole the neighbor's koi!"

Kaila snickered. "Then, you should be keeping a closer eye on him to keep him out of trouble."

"His middle name is _Trouble_. He's just like his father, only shorter and louder," Auron complained. "Just what is our progress rate here?" he asked with waning patience. "Do I really have to go through ten more years of this?"

Bahamut giggled at the warrior monk's ire. "Well, Tidus went way off pattern after his mother died, but he seems to be settling back close to it now. If left on his own, however, he will become Shuyin all over again, and he could cause more harm than good. So, please, we need you to stay with him. Once he falls back into pattern, we'll speed things up again," Bahamut promised, trying to convince Auron to hang in there. "We don't have ten more years to work with him, but we've got to minimize the gaps enough that it feels that way to him."

"Hey, you're the one that promised Jecht you'd stay with him," Kaila reminded him. "Be grateful this is just a dream, or you'd be in for a long, long ride." She grinned. "You're doing a great job with him, though, and -" Kaila and Bahamut suddenly disappeared.

A freshly scrubbed Tidus walked in with a big, bulky towel wrapped around his scrawny frame. It was so big in comparison to him that he had to grip it with both fists to keep it around his stomach and off the ground, to avoid tripping over it. "My pajamas were in my sheets," he unhappily announced to the warrior monk, who had too promptly stripped the bed and dumped the linens in the wash without checking them first.

Auron ushered the boy back out of the kitchen to the bathroom to get the first aid kit - again. "They'll be dry before you go to bed. Just grab some clean shorts and a T-shirt for now."

"Can I have a bandage for my cut?" He touched his forehead with one finger near the newest scrape to grace his body.

"You don't _need_ a bandage. We still have that potion you bought."

"But then no one asks you what happened. When you wear bandages, people ask you what happened, and you get to tell them neat stories. My mom used to tell me stories. Do you like telling stories?" Tidus climbed up on the toilet lid and leaned forward to look deeply into Auron's scarred face. "Could you tell me how this happened?" He drew a small finger down the side of his own face in imitation of the warrior monk's death scar.

Auron considered the boy's innocent question. He couldn't tell him that someday soon he would have to try to destroy the same unsent spirit that gave him that scar. He couldn't picture the small, tender-hearted boy facing off against Lady Yunalesca by any stretch of the imagination. But if they backed out of the plan, then what purpose did being here with Tidus serve? "Another story for another time. What happened to make that?" Auron put the healing potion back and grabbed a small bandage, sticking it on the boy's forehead.

"I was jumping off of the swings at school and tried a flip, but I fell."

Auron rolled his eyes as if he should have known better than to ask. The boy was a fearless bundle of raw energy, and while that would probably aid him in fighting fiends, a healthy fear was necessary to prevent careless disasters, ... like dead koi. "Tidus, tomorrow we have to go apologize to your neighbor and offer to replace his fish. You can't go swimming in other people's ponds - not for any reason. It's not only inconsiderate, it's dangerous. And no more jumping off of swings."

Tidus interpreted the warrior monk's weary tone to be concern for his welfare, rather than a scolding. "But nothing _too_ bad happened. It's just a little cut, see?" He lifted his bangs and pointed to his forehead bandage. "It might scar, but you have a scar, too. Don't worry, Auron. Everything's going to be okay. You can't control everything that happens to you, but no matter what happens, you can turn it into something good." His small hand patted the scar on his guardian's cheek. Then, with a confident smile, the boy jumped down from the toilet lid and ran to his bedroom to get dressed for bed.

Auron looked to where Kaila and Bahamut stood waiting for him to finish tending to the boy. "'Everything's going to be okay,' he says."

"He's learning from you." Kaila smiled, pleased.

Auron was troubled now. "This just doesn't feel right sometimes. We're training a little boy to ..." He lowered his gaze.

"To do what must be done," Bahamut reminded him. "It was the purpose for his creation."

"I know. But ... what about Tidus? Have you ever asked him what he thinks his purpose is?" Auron countered. "What will happen to him when this is done?"

"If he succeeds, he will end our dreaming. We can all rest - even you. If he fails, ... he will become the next Sin. I know it's easy to feel for him because you're having to take care of him. But, always remember that he could become the next destroyer of Spira, if he can't break the cycle."

"The ripples we create for him in here need to make him strong enough to break the pattern out there, so he can defeat the real Yu Yevon," Kaila added.

Auron nodded supposing they were right, but then they both quickly disappeared again.

"Who are you talking to?" Tidus asked from behind the warrior monk. He had changed into a loose cotton T-shirt and shorts.

Auron was surprised at the boy's quiet reappearance. He turned out the light in the bathroom. "Thinking aloud," he excused his mumblings.

"Will you read me a story?"

"Did you do your homework?"

"Uh-I ... Um ..." The boy averted his eyes.

"Go do your homework. Then we'll read."

Tidus's shoulders slumped and he gave a dramatic sigh as if ordered to do hard time in a prison cell. "But homework is so _boring._"

With a mixture of amusement, resignation, and remorse, Auron watched the boy's reluctant retreat back into his room. "Your life will be anything but boring soon enough, kid."


	32. Chapter 32: Father Figure

Chapter 32: Father Figure

With the delicate situation involving Dannae's death out of the way, the Fayth decided they could skip forward on Tidus's time flow a bit. But they had to allow him full days with Auron every few weeks to prevent him from realizing he didn't have a full scope of memories.

On one such afternoon, thirteen-year-old Tidus came home from blitzball practice after school and found Auron sitting on a pulley-platform over the port side of the boat. Curious, instead of going straight inside to shower and change, he leaned over the rail. "What are you doing?"

"Checking the integrity of the hull. One of the bilge pumps failed today, and it came to my attention how much this boat needs maintenance. With a failed pump, you could find yourself sitting at the bottom of the ocean, rather than on top of it. But before I fix it, I wanted to check the hull." Auron scratched his bare shoulder above the long scar that trailed from his eye all the way down his naked torso. "Did your father teach you how to work on this boat before he left?"

"I was seven. He taught me not to jump over the rail," Tidus retorted. "Did you used to work on ships?" He squinted one eye shut. "Argh, I know - ye were a pirate, right me matey? There be monsters in those waters and wenches in those taverns to explore - I mean, explore the waters, not the wenches. Although -"

"Don't even go there." Auron gave the young teen a tolerant glance for his joke. "I've been around them enough that I know what I'm doing." He tested another area on the hull in front of him.

"Wenches?"

"_Ships._"

"What kind of job did you used to do?"

"I was a guardian."

"Nah, I mean before you came here."

"I was a warrior monk, and then I was mercenary guardian, and now I'm guardian to you. I guard. That's what I do."

"Warrior monk ..." Tidus thought about that for a minute. "Don't monks have to shave their heads?"

Auron remembered that Jecht had said the same thing to him. "Different kind of monk."

"Why did you quit?"

"Long story."

Tidus folded his arms over the rail and grasped his elbows, setting his chin on his forearms. "Long story like that scar?"

"They're distantly related."

"You still never told me what happened. Scar like that - looks like it would have killed you."

Auron stopped fingering the hull and pushed his sunglasses up on his nose. Resting an arm on one knee, he looked up at his charge. "A story for another time and place."

Tidus snorted. "You always say that. Must have been some dark and shady dealings involved, if you're not willing to talk about it."

"Nothing dark and shady about wanting to keep some things to myself. You don't tell me everything that goes on in your life."

"What's there to tell?" Tidus shrugged. "I play blitzball. I'm Jecht Jr.," he stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He straightened and climbed up on the railing to sit on it, facing the port side of the boat just above where Auron was working. "How come you never talk about him, anyway?"

"How come you never talk about him?" Auron returned, putting his attention back on the boat.

"Because I hate him. What's your excuse?"

"You hate him," Auron easily answered.

Tidus was annoyed at that response. "Forget it. I don't know why I even bother trying to talk to you. You never give straight answers." He turned and hopped back off of the railing to go inside.

"Tidus," Auron called. "I think you need to come here and learn about what I'm doing."

"Aw, come on. I'm hungry."

"We can grill later. Right now, while there's daylight, you need to learn how to take care of this boat. It'll be easier to learn from me while I'm here than trying to figure it out alone when I'm gone."

Tidus paused at the unexpected news. "You're leaving?"

"I'm only staying until you turn seventeen. You won't need a legal guardian after that, and you should have learned how to manage on your own by then."

Tidus hadn't realized there was an end to this arrangement. Auron wasn't half-bad as far as father figures goes. Though the man had a subtle wit that could be sharper than a knife, not once had Auron ridiculed him. Besides, Tidus knew that if Auron left, he would be alone in the world, and that was a frightening thought.

When he didn't respond, Auron squinted up at him and scratched his shoulder again. "Are you coming down here, or do I have to drag you overboard to do this? Loosen the rope on that cleat to lower the platform a few notches. I'll get this side over here." Auron rose to one knee and reached for the left cleat holding the plank on which he sat, expecting Tidus to take care of the one on the right.

Tidus set down his shoulder bag and returned to the side of the boat. Leaning over the rail, he grasped the rope and untied it, but he unwound it a little too much. Being that loose, the rope couldn't handle the weight of the set up, especially with Auron on it. Though Tidus tried to lower his side of the contraption slowly, the rope came off of the cleat completely and slipped through his hands with a slight burn. "Ah-tch!" He released it to give his hands a shake.

"Tidus!" Auron barked in reprimand, but it was too late. The right side of the plank tilted beneath him, spilling him into the water below with a big splash.

After Auron surfaced and glared at him, Tidus looked over the railing with a wince. "Sorry! Don't kill me, okay? It was an accident!" Hands on the rail, he sprang over it and climbed down the rope on the fallen side of the plank. Then, hanging onto the rope, he used his feet to try to lift the plank back within arm's reach.

Auron shook his head at the kid's attempts to fix it and swam underneath the plank to push it up so that Tidus could grasp it. Then, he swam to the pier and climbed out. A bit soggy, but unharmed, Auron padded back to the port side of the boat and stood, hands on hips, as he watched Tidus cross the outer railing and reattach the rope to the cleat. "Little lower," he advised, helping him get both sides even. "That's it. Now go check the other one and make sure it's still secure."

Tidus nodded and put his feet down on the wet plank. He tested it by doing small bounces to be sure it would support his weight, and then he crossed to the left cleat to give the rope a firm test-tug there as well. "It's good!"

"Good." Auron grabbed the newly secured rope and pulled the end to untie it once more.

"What? Hey!" Tidus fell into the water the same way he had made Auron fall.

Auron chuckled to himself with satisfaction and turned to walk away.

Tidus climbed back up the rope and board contraption to the boat's deck and shook himself off like a dog. "I said it was an accident! You didn't have to get me back for it!"

Auron smirked at his protest. "You'll remember not to release too much rope next time." He put a hand to the door, ready to go inside and get a towel.

Tidus sniffled and blinked the salt water from his eyes, but he easily let go of his anger at being the target of the man's prank, since he wasn't the one who got dunked first. "Hey, Auron?"

The warrior monk paused.

"Um, ..." He was embarrassed to even be bringing it up. "There's this girl in my class named Gin. And I kinda like her, so I was wondering if I could ask her over some time. For, you know, like, a date?"

Auron's smirk fell. "Girls?"

"Just one." Tidus held up one finger in correction, but then considered Auron's assumption. "Am I allowed to have more than one?"

Auron's lips pressed together in a thin line to answer that stupid question.

"Oh wait. What am I asking you for? You were a monk." Tidus giggled lightly.

Auron sighed at the boy's teasing. "Again, your concept is wrong."

"So, you were allowed to keep your hair _and_ be with girls? What kind of a monk is that?"

"Hmph." Auron quirked a brow at him and pushed on the front door to go inside.

Tidus grinned at his guardian's apparent desire to avoid this conversation. He had hit a nerve, so of course, he had to prod it a few more times. Leaving the half-fallen plank where it was, he picked up his shoulder bag to follow him inside. "Sounds like someone's got more than a few shady stories he doesn't want to tell."

Auron heard the remark and flashed the boy a flat expression, but he refused to comment on it. Instead, he grabbed two towels from the closet, passed one to the boy, and opened the other to dry his head, face, and arms. Then, he left the towel draped behind his neck and shoulders as he headed into the kitchen.

))((

Kaila waited until she saw Tidus go into his room to change before she led Bahamut into the kitchen behind Auron and materialized. "According to my brother, Gin was Shuyin's first kiss and his first girlfriend, so you have to say 'yes' to his date request. We'll clip the time flow after that so he doesn't get attached. It was a super short relationship, anyway." She excused the decision with a shrug. "Actually, most of his relationships were super short. Shuyin was a pathological flirt. He never made enemies of the girls he dated, though - well, except me," she admitted with some embarrassment. "But I always thought of him as a good friend, even when I was mad at him. I guess it's because he was always such an open book, you know? What you see is what you get with him."

Bahamut glanced at her with curiosity about her confession, unable to picture her dating Shuyin or being enemies with him, but then he turned his attention back to Auron. "But he was also impatient and self-centered. When he became interested in my sister, he completely disregarded the fact that she was dating Kaila's brother, Koji. He really did love Lenne, and he remains unsent to this day because he misses her so much, but ..."

"Shuyin and Koji had a fight about his overt interest in her, and ... Koji died as a result." Kaila finished what Bahamut was ashamed to say. She sadly lowered her gaze, thinking of the unfortunate event.

Bahamut continued. "Shuyin didn't actually kill Koji, but if he just had a little more common sense about acting on his feelings, maybe Koji would still be alive. You should guide Tidus toward having more patience and common sense about that kind of thing. Especially since it appears that his summoner is going to be Braska's daughter."

"Yuna?" Auron was astonished at this news. He seemed upset at first, but then leaned back against the kitchen counter to mull over his memories of the little girl. "It's been ten years since I've seen her. Is Kimahri Ronso still with her in Besaid?"

"Yes." Bahamut nodded. "And now she's training in her father's footsteps to be a summoner. She may be our best bet at taking Tidus all the way to Zanarkand to become the Final Aeon, so that he can fight Sin and Yevon. We will give him to her as a guardian, just as we gave Jecht to Braska, and hope that maybe he -"

"But that means Yuna will meet the same fate as her father," Auron interrupted.

"Not if Tidus can defeat Yevon before he takes possession. Tidus is quick, strong-willed, and made of a new combination of magic that Yevon's never had to fight before. We think he will be able to resist long enough to end the fight before Yevon can take him, especially if he has help from his father. Anyway, the good news is that Tidus is almost completely back on pattern with Shuyin's other memories that we've allowed him to keep. His soul knows who he used to be, even if his current conscience doesn't. That should make it a little easier to predict what he's going to do. Keep interacting with him the way you've been doing, though. That is part of what's keeping him from turning back into Shuyin – which we definitely don't want."

The plans of the Fayth lay naked before Auron now, and everything that had happened in the past lay beside everything they were doing now to prepare for the future. Again, he could not help but sympathize for the boy's lack of choice in his own fate, but he tried to shift his concerns from the future back to the present. "I don't suppose you have any advice on what to do now that his interest has switched from dogs to dates?"

Kaila smiled. "No, but it sounds like it's time for you to give him some advice on girls."

"You can't be serious. That's strictly Jecht's department."

"But Jecht can't be here for him, so he needs you to do it," she answered.

Auron sighed heavily, grabbed a couple of containers of pre-sliced food from the fridge, and then headed toward Tidus's room to face his next challenge with this kid. After knocking on the door, he waited for him to answer, then thrust the food into his arms. "Take that outside and set up the grill. We'll finish inspecting the hull after we eat."

"Okay." Tidus easily accepted the task and jogged outside to do it.

Auron went down the stairs into the lower level of the houseboat. He had taken over Dannae's bedroom now that she was gone. Pushing open the closet door, he first looked to Jecht's stored sword, but then reached for his own larger sword, instead. He took a moment to consider how his own father handled the matter, or how Jecht might have handled it if he were here. The latter thought made him chuckle and he shook his head again. "Well, I can't do this any _worse_ than you might have, right?" he spoke in amusement, as if Jecht were listening. Then, he headed back up the stairs and went out onto the deck. Tidus was on the upper part of the deck, lighting the grill. Auron shouldered the heavy, black weapon and ascended the stairs at an easy pace.

Tidus looked up when he heard him coming, but did a double take upon seeing the sword. "Woah! Oh, wow! Where did you get that?" Like filament to a magnet, Tidus was drawn toward the exotic weapon and reached for it.

"Don't touch it." Auron knocked his hand away. "I brought it with me when I first came here, but you probably don't remember it because you were so young. You wanted to know what kind of monk I used to be? I said I used to be a warrior monk - emphasis on warrior." He unsheathed the heavy, daikatana and firmly planted the tip between the wooden slats in the deck.

"You used _this_ as a monk?" Tidus eagerly reached for the hilt.

"Don't touch it!" Auron snapped at him again.

Tidus immediately withdrew his hands to his chest at the commanding tone. "Geeze, okay already. You don't have to be so scary about it. Hey, you're … not going to use that on _me_, are you?"

Auron remained straight-faced, though he was amused at the sudden caution. "I might."

Tidus narrowed his eyes, unable to tell whether the man was serious or not. "Um, ... did I do something wrong?"

Auron thought about what Kaila said about Shuyin and then thought about little Yuna – Lord Braska's pride and joy. "No, but we're going to make sure that you don't."

"Huh?"

The warrior monk turned his back on him and waved a hand over the grill to test its heat before setting the strips of meat and sliced vegetables over it. After a long moment, he took note of the unusual silence. "Are you touching the sword?"

Tidus had been reaching a finger toward the golden ornate design on the ebony cross-piece, but he froze in place and withdrew the finger now. "No," he answered with annoyance.

"Liar."

Tidus frowned. "Well, what'd you bring it out here for?"

Auron chose his words carefully. "You can admire its beauty and strength, ... but you don't handle a sword without learning to respect it first. Your sword is your best friend in battle. Your life depends on how well you take care of it. Handle it improperly or take it for granted, and that razor-sharp edge can be unforgiving."

Tidus became hopeful. "You're going to teach me how to use it?"

"No, I'm going to teach you how to keep your hands off of it, even though it's right in front of you. So, ..." Auron softened his tone. "Tell me about this girl that you like. What's her name - Brandy?"

"Gin." Irritated at the warrior monk's stinginess, Tidus purposefully flicked the little tassel and string of beads hanging from the sword's hilt, just to defy him.

Auron stopped situating the meat on the grill and gave the boy a look of warning over his shoulder. "What part of '_no_' did you not understand?"

"How did you -?"

"Keep your hands to yourself."

"I did!" His voice cracked slightly under the strength of his protest.

"You did _not_. Sit down over here." Auron scowled and ordered, pointing to the other side of the grill, away from the sword.

Tidus gave him a sour expression and moved to sit cross-legged on the deck where he was told. Then, with a grumpy pout, he dropped his chin into his hands.

Unseen to them, Kaila was beside herself with laughter and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh, this is going to be good," she said to Bahamut.

))((

Bahamut continued to work on Tidus's time flow within the dream, speeding things along at regular intervals as quickly as he dared, until he came close to the time when Shuyin's mother originally died. He decided this could be tricky to navigate since Shuyin's memories could end up recalling something that was supposed to have already happened in Tidus's life. Slowing the time frames to normal rate, he began to look for ways to ensure there wouldn't be any problems.

In the locker room after blitzball practice, where Shuyin would have been talking to Koji, Tidus spun the combination lock on his locker door and opened it without comment to anyone. Grabbing his towel, he flipped it over his shoulder and reached for his shower supplies. Then, he started to head toward one of the shower stalls when his coach intercepted him.

His coach fussed at him for reports from his teachers that he was failing languages arts, in spite of his attempt to rescue his grades in history. "You know, your father was the best player the sport ever knew."

"This again." Tidus snorted in disgust and shook his head. "Yeah, he was his number one fan."

His coach frowned at his response. "There is no guarantee you're going to play professional blitz when you get out of here just because your father did."

"Is this a page out of my history teacher's book of lectures? I'm not trying to be like my dad." Tidus remained patient, though he looked like he really wanted to yell. "Maybe I want to play blitzball because I just like it and happen to be good at it."

"Eighty percent, or better, or you're off the team. Understood?" the coach calmly warned him.

"Understood," Tidus grumped, accepting his reprimand.

"In the meantime, we'll have to find someone else to take your pool position."

"_What?_" He was hurt and disappointed.

The coach lifted his clipboard and penned a note onto the electronic surface. Then, he scrolled through a few notes to make another. "Okay, final call - Tidus is on the bench, Jaz takes right forward. We'll move Ekina off the bench to take the right defense, and move Nan up to center."

"Center?" Nan overheard the coach's conversation. "All right! You just made my day, Jecht Jr." He gripped the back of Tidus's neck in excitement.

"What_ever_." Tidus headed for an empty shower stall and hung his towel on the door hook. Still dressed in his wet uniform, he turned on the shower head to rinse away all the itchy chlorine first. Removing his team shirt, he wrapped it around his hand and wrung the chlorine out of it. Then, palms flat against the tile, he stood with his head bowed beneath the steady spray, but the cool water did nothing to ease his frustration. With a sigh of discouragement, Tidus leaned against the wall and worried about how he was going to bring his grades up.

"Interesting," Bahamut commented aloud. "Tidus is shaping up to be a lot less temperamental than Shuyin might have been about something like that. Shuyin probably would have hit the ceiling - or at least a wall - which is better than hitting a fan, I suppose."

"Yes, Tidus is shaping up quite nicely, isn't he?" Kaila found herself smiling at how their experimental illusion had grown over the sixteen-year time span given to him so far.

"How far away are we from Shuyin's mother's death? That's going to be totally out of whack now." When she didn't answer, Bahamut faced her and noticed the puppy-struck look on her face. "_Kaila._" He gave her a nudge and a frown.

"What? Oh." She blushed slightly. "What were you saying?"

"Would you keep your mind on what we're supposed to be doing here?"

"That's kind of hard to think about in a locker room, okay?"

Bahamut rolled his eyes at her distraction. "How much longer before Shuyin's mother died?"

Kaila sighed. "Well, Birana is tutoring Tidus in history now, so he's probably going to ask her to the spring dance - which I really should have slapped both Shuyin and Koji for setting me up like that. But it should be soon - within a week or two. His mother died the morning after the dance."

Bahamut gave her a flat expression. "Setting you up?"

Kaila explained the whole messy ordeal, getting more irritated the more that she talked about it.

"You're really not over that yet, are you?" he commented when she was done.

"I'm over it," she snappishly answered. "That just happened to be a turning point, okay?"

"Then, it might have been a turning point for Shuyin, too."

"Obviously. It's what caused the huge rift between him and Koji. But Tidus can't have that fight – we don't exist to him. If we're not there, he will probably go to the dance with Birana. And while that might work fine, what will happen the next morning when his mom originally died? Do we just let it play out and see what happens?"

Bahamut was thoughtful for a moment. "Perhaps we should stick as close as possible to what's familiar, considering what's coming - to prevent a big ripple from becoming worse. You were present at both events, right? Having you present again might minimize how far the events stray from his pattern."

"I was present, but I argued with him."

"It still might be better for him to be with you than Birana, since she had no other role in Shuyin's life at all. You might not have been romantically involved with him, but it sounds like you're the one who taught him about loyalty and friendship. You argued with him the night before, but you were there for him the next day when he needed you. And you remained friends after all this time, even after he hurt your feelings. You were able to forgive him. As a guardian, he needs that lesson."

Kaila was surprised. "You want to include the memory of our argument?"

"No. Leaving Shuyin's memories of you in-tact would trigger memories of other things we've tried hard to erase for Tidus. Your illusion would know him, but he wouldn't know your illusion. It would be too weird. You should just stand in as yourself for a short time."

"What?" Kaila was unhappy with this request. "You want me to actually talk to him?"

"It's just for a week or so. I think you made a difference in Shuyin's life. It would be nice if you could be there for Tidus, too."

Kaila took another look at Tidus as he came out of the shower. Freshly dressed in dry clothing and standing alone at his locker, he was packing his belongings into his duffle bag. He always seemed to be so alone compared to Shuyin. "Okay, I'll do it," she reluctantly agreed.

Bahamut smiled at her cooperation. "Let's go take a walk. He needs to run into you before he goes to see Birana. You have to keep him from asking her to the dance."

Kaila emitted a noise that sounded like a whine of protest. "Are you kidding me? I couldn't keep his mind off of her the first time around."

Bahamut grabbed her hand and ran with her to exit the sphere pool gym and hide behind the corner. There, they waited for Tidus to also leave the building to meet with his tutor at the library just down the street.

"There he is. What do I say?" she hissed as soon as he came into view.

"Just be yourself. How hard can it be? You already know him."

"No, I don't! This isn't Shuyin!"

"Tidus isn't _that_ different from Shuyin."

"I know!" she hissed again.

Bahamut made a face at her contradictory worries. "Call more pyreflies, so he can see you."

Frustrated with herself, Kaila drew more particles of magic into her ghost form. "How do I look?" Her hand went to her ponytail, and she realized she hadn't put on any make-up in a thousand years. "Do I have any zits?"

"Cut it out. You're starting to sound like my sister. All you're missing is a conversation piece." Bahamut summoned an illusionary stack of spheres and notebooks in her arms. "Better. Now you're a tutor."

"I don't believe I'm going back to high school at my age. I'm centuries older than the gum under my geometry class desk!"

"You're seventeen," he argued, materializing enough to give his fretful partner a push, shoving her away from the bushes and onto the sidewalk.

"This is too much! I'm going to drop something!" She tried to balance the stack of items in her arms and turned to walk toward their prey, when she incidentally collided with him, dropping _everything_.

Tidus was surprised by the collision, considering there was absolutely no one in front of him seconds earlier when he was adjusting his headphones and selecting a new song in his music sphere. Tugging one earpiece free, he looked around, as if wondering where she came from, but the sprawling books on the sidewalk caught his attention next, instead.

Embarrassed, Kaila flashed him a nervous smile. "I'm so sorry. I was carrying entirely too many things." She dropped to her knees to begin snatching up the overload items, as she shot an accusing glare over her shoulder at her ghostly cohort hidden in the bushes.

"Oh, hey, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, or I would have seen you coming." Tidus wasn't entirely sure about that statement, but he knelt to help her collect her things. "Wow, that's a lot of books and spheres. You must be doing a term report or something."

Kaila accepted the spheres he collected for her and met his gaze. It was one thing to work with Tidus without him knowing she was there, but it was another thing to actually interact with him. "Yes, I ... guess I am."

"What subject?"

"Um, ..." She tore her gaze away from his face and glanced quickly over the labels on the spheres. "Looks like … language arts."

"Mh, not the best subject for me." He stood with her.

"Well, maybe I could tutor you?" She inwardly groaned at how scripted that sounded.

Tidus quirked a brow. "How do I know your grades aren't as bad as mine are?"

Kaila was almost insulted, considering how much he goofed off and slept in classes. "What?"

"Kidding." He laughed lightly at her offended expression. "I have to bring my grades up, or I'm going to be benched for finals. Are you for real about that offer?"

"Yeah, for real."

"Cool. Uh, what's your name?"

"Kaila." She started to walk toward the library, and he automatically followed since that was the direction he was heading, too.

"I'm -"

"Tidus." She couldn't help but say it. "I know."

He was surprised that she knew his name. "Wait. You've probably seen me on the blitzball team, right? That's how most people know me. You had me thinking you were psychic there for a minute."

"Um, well, maybe I am." Her nervousness dissipated a little as they walked, and she smiled at how easy-going his personality was – just like Shuyin's.

"Okay, then. What am I thinking?" He closed his eyes, concentrating on something unseen.

Kaila smirked at being tested. "You're ... going to the library?"

He opened his eyes. "Hey, you're good, considering we're both headed in that direction."

"And you're going to meet with your history tutor."

He grinned with a light laugh. "Woah. Okay, that's really good."

"And you're thinking of asking her to go the dance with you."

Tidus stopped walking and faced her. "Okay, now that's just freakin' spooky."

Kaila chuckled lightly at his reaction. "Don't ask her, okay?"

He quirked a brow in suspicion. "Why not?"

"Because it's not a good idea."

He became mildly offended. "How would you know?"

Kaila winced. "I can feel it. I'm psychic, remember?"

He was amused and intrigued by her strange responses. "Oh, you can _feel_ it. You didn't have some kind of vision about a bus running me over on my way to pick her up, did you?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I just know someone else who would really like to go with you."

He was amused, but unsure what to make of that. "Really? Who?"

"I can't tell you yet."

"What? Why not?"

"It's ... a secret."

Tidus folded his arms and studied her with doubt. "Okay, this is kinda freaky, but I'm curious. I'll hold off today because I don't want to get hit by lightning or anything, but you have to tell me who it is by tomorrow."

"Does that mean you want to start tutoring tomorrow?"

"Okay. How about my place, tomorrow after blitz practice?" he suggested.

"Okay."

"Great. But … I do have to at least meet with her for my history tutoring. The bus or lightning isn't going to chase me into the library is it?"

She laughed lightly. "No, no. Of course not."

"See you tomorrow, then." He grinned and continued toward the library on his own.

Kaila bit her lip and smiled to herself as she turned the corner onto the nearest side street.

Bahamut appeared before her with an expression of doubt. "Psychic? Really?"

"How else was I supposed to stop that date from happening?"

"_Psychic?_"

"He went along with it, didn't he? He's fun. I like him." Kaila giggled to herself. "He's like Shuyin, but without all the moody attitude. Yes!" She promptly dropped the books and spheres to imitate Shuyin's little victory dance. "Woo hoo!"

"Kaila, you realize this is only temporary. Don't like him too much."

"You put me up to this. Shut up and let me enjoy it!"

Tidus realized he'd forgotten to give her a very vital piece of information - where he lived. Snapping his fingers as his forgetfulness, he turned and jogged back in the direction she had left. When he rounded the corner, he was surprised - and amused - to find her doing his trademark dance. "Woo hoo! What are we celebrating?"

Kaila froze in mid-motion, and her eyes popped open. Bahamut had already vanished, and when she looked behind her, Tidus gave her a big, cheesy grin. Groaning in embarrassment, she flushed several shades of pink, straightened, and smoothed her shorts. "I dropped my spheres again."

"Well, you're even klutzier than I am, then." He bent to help her pick up her spheres and handed them back to her again, still clearly amused at catching her doing his comic dance. "I forgot to tell you I live on a houseboat down at the harbor. I can walk you there, if you meet me outside of the gym."

"Oh, that's okay, I'll just meet you there."

His brows rose. "You know where I live?"

"I'm ... very familiar with the harbor."

He paused to scratch his head. "If you say so. I gotta run, or I'm going to be late. See ya."

She smiled and held her breath until he had jogged out of sight again. Then, she let it out with a big sigh. "Great. Now he thinks I'm a stalker."


	33. Chapter 33: Deja Vu

Chapter 33: _Déjà Vu_

Dressed in casual, tan shorts and a light rose-colored T-shirt, with her brown hair swept into her usual ponytail, Kaila knocked on the door of the houseboat and waited for Tidus to answer the door. "Hi. I'm here to help with language arts. Is now a good time?"

Tidus stepped aside to let her come in. "Sure."

Kaila slid off her sandals and walked past him to enter the houseboat. "Doing dishes?" She chuckled, giving the towel on his shoulder a small tug. The weirdest sense of _déjà vu_ came over her now that she was actively taking part in this facade.

"Something like that." He smiled lightly and led her into the kitchen, so he could put the dish towel away. Pulling a handful of cookies from the counter jar, he automatically split the serving with her.

Kaila thought of all the times they had shared treats with each other and smirked at his unchanged, instinctive behavior about it. "Thanks." As she watched him go to the dryer and check for a recently done load of laundry, she remembered they had spoken of Shuyin's mother next, but she was careful not to mention her to Tidus this time around.

Tidus opened the washer and transferred a load to the dryer. "I'll be done here in a few minutes. I was supposed to meet my history tutor at the library this afternoon, but I postponed it for tomorrow since I'm tutoring with you today. I'm beginning to think my entire week is going to be filled with nothing but tutoring sessions in the evenings now."

Kaila stopped chewing her cookie. "You passed up a meeting with Birana for me?"

"I told you yesterday we'd meet today."

"Yeah, but that's not ..." She caught herself before finishing that thought. _That's just not like you. But you're not you. You're someone else._

"Not what?"

"Nothing. Sorry." She shrugged it off with embarrassment. "I guess I'm not used to being treated so … nice. My brother and his best friend would never pass up someone like Birana for an afternoon with me and a grammar handbook."

He was humored by that odd confession. "You don't want me to be nice to you?"

"It's just ... weird."

"You'd rather I act like a jerk?"

"No," she emphatically answered.

He paused, folded his arms at his chest, and tilted his chin. "Wait, how'd you know her name?"

Kaila froze. Oops. Pretending she didn't know him was definitely going to be difficult. "Psychic," she reminded him with a light laugh to cover her mistake. "Did you … ask her … yet?"

He giggled lightly. "You told me not to. Make up your mind."

Kaila couldn't help but be amused at how much Tidus's giggle sounded exactly the same as Shuyin's. "And you actually listened to me?"

"You know, I'm a natural skeptic, but when someone reads my mind, I at least give the benefit of the doubt until I can figure out how the trick is being done. I haven't told anyone I was thinking of asking her to the dance, so I can't figure out how you knew that. And what _exactly_ is this bad feeling you have about me asking her out?"

She quieted for a insecure moment and brushed the flour dust from her other cookies before crossing the kitchen to stand near the sink. "Well, my brother once told me that she only dated guys with a certain grade average."

Tidus's eyes went to her bare feet when he saw where she was standing. Moving to her side, he crouched to inspect the floor. "Oh, I get it. You're trying to warn me I don't stand a chance because of my failing grades."

"No, I just have a feeling that ..." Kaila remembered what happened with Shuyin next, but she felt compelled to say it again anyway, mainly because she knew it was impossible for his mother to have dropped a glass there this time. "Are you … looking at my legs?"

"Only above the ankle," he answered. "Actually, I dropped a glass of water there just a few minutes ago. I didn't want you to cut your foot if the vac missed a piece."

"_You_ dropped it." She didn't bother to look over her shoulder to see the auto-vac bumping around on the other side of the room. After pondering the altered, but continued, course of events for a short moment, she was stunned to realize that he had just flirted with her. "Thanks for looking out for me," she mumbled, not sure whether to be happy or cautious about how close this ripple was sticking to the original, considering what she had to navigate around.

"No problem." He shrugged, returned to the washer, and dumped the last of the load into the dryer. "Actually, you're right about Birana's standards. I've already asked her out a couple of times, and she refuses until I get my grades up. I can't believe she's being so stingy about it. I mean, I can't blame her for wanting to date a smart guy, but I'm no brainiac. It seems like I'm just jumping through hoops to impress her. But I can't decide how I feel about that, you know? On one hand, if you like someone, you do things they like to make them happy. But on the other hand, that person should be able to accept you for who you are rather than trying to change you, right?"

Kaila blinked in silent dismay and tried hard not to let it show. She wondered if Shuyin ever felt that way, or if this was just one more way that Tidus was different from him. "I … guess so."

"Maybe you're right about asking her out anyway being a bad idea." He shrugged in mild discouragement and switched on the appliance, then leaned against it. "But I've also been thinking about that secret person you said wanted to go to the dance with me, and ... I'd rather not accept a blind date, either."

Kaila figured as much. "Understandable."

Tidus waited for an expectant moment. "You're not even going to tell me who it was?"

She wasn't sure what else she should say. "Well, it … doesn't matter now."

Moving to the table, he snorted in amusement at her peculiar answers and collected his digital notebook and study spheres. Then, he sat down at the bar counter and used his foot to push another tall bar stool out for her. "You were supposed to say it wouldn't be a blind date."

She grabbed the grammar handbook and accompanying sphere as she sat down next to him at the bar. "Why would I say that?"

Tidus laughed lightly to himself in mild embarrassment. "Okay, this is going to sound incredibly awkward now, but I thought you meant it was … you."

"Me?" Kaila suddenly realized her presence wasn't just a matter of her keeping him from getting involved with Birana. During the real events, she had asked him to go to the dance with her. "Great," she muttered under her breath.

He wasn't sure how to interpret her reaction. "I guess that means you're _not_ interested in going with me?"

Kaila froze again. He wasn't supposed to turn the tables on her like this. "I don't know."

Tidus's brows rose. "Well, is that a polite 'no', or a maybe?"

She didn't want to go through this disaster with him again. "Why me?"

He leaned forward on the table to study her face, rather than his homework. "This is going to sound really crazy, but … I feel like ... You seem so familiar, but I can't really say why."

Kaila tried to think of an appropriate response, but "psychic" wouldn't work this time, and she was running out of excuses.

Auron came into the kitchen and glanced at her with a knowing expression. "Tidus, the trash needs taking out."

Tidus straightened and gave the man an annoyed glance. "What? It's fine."

"Take the trash out."

"This is Auron - my unofficial guardian monk. He gets cranky when he doesn't get his afternoon naps." Tidus stood and gathered the trash bag. "I'll be right back," he groused before leaving to take it to the bin at the end of the pier.

Auron waited until he heard the front door shut, indicating Tidus was gone. "See what you've been missing when he can talk back to you?" He had already been told of the precautionary plans to put Kaila back into Tidus's path, to be a constant amid the possibly wild variables surrounding his mother's death.

"He asked me to the dance. What should I say?"

Auron shrugged. "Say yes."

"But -"

"You're the one who told me I should let him go on dates." Auron smirked at her getting caught in her own trap and pulled a bottled drink from the fridge. He popped the cap, tossed the lid toward the empty trash can, and then took a long drink to quench his thirst.

"But we never actually went to the dance. We had a really bad argument. And I don't want to argue with him like that again."

Auron shrugged. "Then go to the dance and have fun this time. He's a good kid."

"Bahamut?" With worry, she looked for the other Fayth. "He said I seem familiar. What if he starts remembering me and what really happened?"

The boy's spirit appeared. "Deny it and keep playing your new role. You've got to lead him away from what really happened, but without straying too far from it, if this is going to work out smoothly. The reason for your argument is no longer part of his story, and the whole point of your being here is to give him something better to fill the void. The memories of the dance can be supplied by everyone else who attended. Remember, this isn't about what happened between you and Shuyin. This is about training Tidus to be a guardian - to be the Final Aeon that can defeat Yevon once and for all." Bahamut heard the front door open and he disappeared from view.

Kaila looked back at the homework spread across the counter top. _This is about training Tidus to be a guardian - to be a Final Aeon that can defeat Yevon once and for all._ She had seen so many Final Aeons come and go that the very name became a paradox. It hurt to think of what Lady Yunalesca would do to this one. She looked up to Auron, understanding now why this task bothered him sometimes.

Tidus returned to the kitchen and slipped past Auron to put a new trash bag in the can, only to utter a sound of disgust when he spied the bottle cap in the bottom. "You could have waited for me to put the new bag in, you know." He pulled the cap out and fixed the bag before dropping it back in.

"You should have put the new bag in before taking out the old." Auron tipped his drink to Kaila, as if giving her a hint on her decision, and then he left.

Tidus sat on his bar stool at the counter once more. "Okay, where were we?"

With a heavy heart, Kaila lifted her gaze to his face. She knew that the illusion before her was nothing but a mixed-up memory of Shuyin with a bit of borrowed soul. She knew that his destiny, whether he succeeded or failed, would likely end his own false existence. That was his truth. But, he didn't know that. He believed all of this was real. He believed he was real and knew nothing of his predestined fate.

"Is something wrong?" He acknowledged her worried expression.

"No," she quietly answered. "I was going to say, ... I'd be happy to go to the dance with you."

He was uncertain about her tone and expression. "If you don't want to -"

"No, I want to," she promptly corrected and smiled to hide her concern. "It sounds like fun."

A slow grin accompanied his reassurance. "Cool."

That grin was contagious. Kaila couldn't help but return it before trying to focus on something else. "Maybe we should actually do some language arts now? What have you been doing in class?"

He studied her for a moment as if still trying to figure out what felt so familiar about her, but then he shook his head at his inability to find the memory he was seeking. Then, he turned his digital notebook around and opened it to find his most recent notes. "Archetypes of star-crossed lovers from ancient literature. I have to write a paper comparing two couples. I was thinking of doing Orihime and Hikoboshi with Romeo and Juliet."

"What? You're kidding."

"Yeah, I know. I hate trying to read Shakespeare, too," he turned his notes toward her. "But both of them had parent issues, so I figure it's a starting point. I'm just drawing a blank on anything else they have in common. Maybe I should pick someone else. I don't know," he shrugged and slouched, chin in hand, as he awaited her review.

Kaila almost groaned in disbelief at the distasteful irony of the task before her, considering what happened to Shuyin and Lenne, but her memory confirmed the assignment's due date before the dance so she had no choice but to help him with it.

))((

A couple of weeks later, the night of the dance finally arrived - again. Still afraid of inviting unwanted memories, when Kaila cast herself in the illusion of formal attire for the dance, she changed her dress color to green. She was torn between dread and amusement when Tidus answered the door in the same half-dressed condition that Shuyin had, but his greeting was completely different.

"Wow. That's a new look for you. You look ... nice in that." He invited her inside, but then gave her an animated 'stop right there' gesture and looked down at his baggy, dark blue pants. "Hey, you're early, and I'm not quite ready yet, but just a sec, okay?"

Kaila tilted her chin in curiosity as she watched him jog down the hall to his room and shut the door. There was a lot of noise for a few minutes, but then the door opened again with a sweeping arm of invitation. Stepping out of her silver heels, she hooked them on her fingers and walked to his room. The floor was cleared. The bed was made. The whole room was tidy in a rushed kind of way. She couldn't help but smirk, knowing what it looked like before. "So, where'd you hide everything?"

He chuckled at her guess. "Under the bed," he admitted with a shrug.

"Even the smut comic?" she asked with a quirked brow.

He blinked at her with astonishment. "Okay, you're really starting to freak me out with that psychic stuff."

She laughed lightly at his mildly embarrassed expression. "Sorry." Kaila withdrew something small from her hand purse and held it out to him. "Peace offering."

Tidus opened his hand and received a piece candy. He grinned at the gift, but then unwrapped it and stared at it with suspicion before popping it into his mouth.

"Do you not like strawberry-flavored candy?" She wondered if this was another difference between Shuyin and Tidus.

"No, the strawberry ones are my favorite. I just couldn't remember if I'd ever had these before, but I think I have."

Kaila worried for a moment if she had made a mistake giving it to him.

"Are you sure this isn't a bribe to keep me from stepping on your toes? I do know how to dance, you know." He gave her a light wink and walked to his closet to grab a shirt. Pulling it over his head, he flicked the ends of his hair out of his collar. Then, he grabbed some socks from a drawer and sat on the bed to put them on.

Kaila sighed with relief at the warm, familiar wink and sat down beside him, drawing her ankles underneath herself. "You mean other than that ridiculous blitzball crowd-pleaser?"

"That's not ridiculous; it's classic. You were doing it, too. I caught you red-handed, even though you never did tell me what you were celebrating. See, when_ I _do that, it means I've scored."

She was embarrassed all over again. "Oh, well, that. That was ... I thought I had a bug on me."

"Uh-huh." Tidus smirked as if he knew better and drew his legs into a cross-legged position as he turned to face her. "So, have you thought about what you want to do after the dance?" Finding the candy wrapper again, he rolled it into a ball between his thumb and forefinger.

Kaila remembered this conversation with Shuyin - and the outcome. "Um. Not yet."

"I was thinking we could go to the Neon District and catch a movie, … if you want."

Kaila nodded with a small smile. "Sounds like fun."

He noticed that she seemed a bit disappointed. "If you'd rather do something else, I'm okay with that, too."

A rap on the door sill caught their attention, and Auron stuck his head in the door. "Shouldn't you two should be in the living room or on your way to the dance?"

Both of them frowned at him. "Look, just because you _temporarily_ live here to watch over me doesn't mean you have the right to barge into my room any time you want," Tidus groused.

Auron entered the room, settled back against the wall, and set his fixed gaze on the teen.

Tidus became annoyed. "What are you doing?"

"Watching over you."

They both blinked at him in disbelief, but then Tidus could stand it no longer. "I'm out of here." He took Kaila's hand and flicked the candy wrapper at Auron on the way out.

Kaila frowned at the unsent guardian for his obnoxious intrusion as she followed.

))((

Auron chuckled to himself at their reactions to his little joke.

Bahamut appeared beside him. "Well, that did the trick to get them out the door and push this ripple along, but … I'm wondering if this was such a good idea, after all."

"What do you mean?" the warrior monk asked as they walked from Tidus's bedroom back into the living room.

"Isn't it obvious?" The boy looked to the door with worry. "Kaila still loves him."

))((

Kaila made up for missing her date with Shuyin by dancing with Tidus all night. When the dance was over, they walked to the Neon District for dinner, a movie, and a few more pieces of candy. It was very late by the time they turned back toward the harbor. So, _this_ was what it felt like to be _Kaila_ instead of _Koji's sister_.

"And then he made me take the dog outside and dragged me by the ear to apologize to Old Man Rane. I thought Auron was going to kill me!" Tidus laughed at the memory of the scolding.

Kaila laughed, too - not because the story was fresh and amusing, but because hearing him talk about it like that made it feel like all their hard work "raising" him had been worthwhile. "So, ... you have good memories of your childhood?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean it had its moments that I'd rather forget, but it's like that for everyone, isn't it?"

She smiled with pride and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I suppose."

Tidus paused when they came to an intersection, then shook his head. "Gah! I wasn't even thinking where I was going. I'm incapable of walking and talking at the same time. Which way is your home? I'll walk you back."

"Oh, ... it's okay. I'd rather go back to the houseboat."

"Are you sure? It's really late, and we'll have to face stick-in-the-mud Auron again. I can't _believe_ he was actually going to sit there and watch us." Then, after a pause, an impish grin lit his face. "Hey, I know where we can go." He grabbed her hand and started to run off the paved road.

Kaila had to plant her feet firmly on the ground to make him stop. "I'm wearing heels! They'll sink in the dirt."

"Oh yeah, sorry." He giggled lightly at his mistake.

Sighing at that laugh, she removed her shoes. Then, with a grin, he lunged forward, running toward the grass. She was barely able to keep up with him as their midnight race took them toward a small hill. Upon reaching the hill, she was glad to drop into the cool grass to catch her breath "You have way too much energy! Aren't you tired from all that dancing?"

"I'm just getting warmed up," he answered. "But if you're tired, we can rest here for a few minutes." Sitting beside her, so that they were both facing the open harbor, he lifted his face toward the sea breeze and closed his eyes to enjoy it for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, he found her staring at him with a strange sort of glazed expression. Tidus's brows rose with worry. "Is something wrong?"

"No." She smiled at him shook her head. "Everything's ... perfect."

Tidus became optimistically quiet for a moment, then leaned across her and pressed a strawberry flavored kiss lightly over her lips. It was just a small kiss, but she drew back in uncertainty. "That bad?" he asked with a wince.

She laughed apologetically. "No, no! It's just you surprised me."

"And you call yourself psychic." Wearing a mischievous grin, he shook his head and drew an arm around her shoulders to bring her closer for another kiss.

Kaila could feel her back and neck stiffen beneath his embrace, but as the kiss lingered, she relaxed and touched a hand to his neck to pull him closer. When she opened her eyes, however, she stared at him with honest wonder, as if seeing his face again for the first time. His kiss … It was different. "You really are … someone new," she quietly spoke.

He tried not to look bewildered by the odd comment.

Struggling with herself over this realization's new depth, but not wanting their fun to be spoiled by serious stuff, Kaila made herself give him a reassuring smile. Yet when she thought about it, what lay in store for him frightened her. She turned her gaze to the stars. "Have you ever thought about your future, ... Tidus?" It still felt strange to call him that name.

"All the time. Right now I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat when I get home."

She tilted her chin and gave him a flat glance for the joke. "That's not what I mean."

He gave her a cheesy grin. "Okay, then, not really. Right now I'm just having fun, you know?" He used his knee to lightly bump hers. "Are you having fun?"

She smirked at his flirtation. "Absolutely." But, she would not be deterred from her topic. "But … what do you plan to do when you're done with school?"

He gave a light shrug and leaned back on his hands. "I'll probably end up trying out for the Abes. Everyone's expecting me to follow in my old man's footsteps, anyway."

Kaila knew Tidus needed to sign up with the Abes soon, but she wondered what could be used as motivation now that his mother's death was no longer in the equation. Once his short year with the Abes was up, it would be time for him to leave the dream. "Is that all you want out of life? Blitzball?"

"What else is there?"

"University education, world travel, self-employment, marriage and family ..."

"Oh, no way." He shook his head. "Well, maybe world travel, but my parents made marriage look like it was about as fun as having teeth pulled. My mom practically worshiped the ground my dad walked on, but he was too full of himself to notice. He hurt her a lot, but she always made excuses for him. He always acted like we were such a burden weighing down his career. I never want to be stuck in a relationship like that."

Kaila plucked a blade of grass and absently pulled it between her fingers. "I used to love someone like that. He taught me that love shouldn't be blind. Forgiveness is one thing, but to turn a blind eye to someone's repeated wrongs isn't love, it's a selfish obsession. And it's harmful to hold someone captive to our own desires - or to allow yourself to be held captive to someone else's. You can't make someone love you." She pulled the blade of grass in half and stared at the dark, broken ends in the light of the distant streetlamp. "True love isn't possessive; it's protective. It protects, even when it means letting go, if that is what it takes to prevent harm. Do you understand the difference?"

He was pensive for a long moment. "I guess so."

It was very important that he understand that difference, for the sake of his summoner - for the sake of all Spira. Kaila decided to throw some familiar probabilities at him to see where he stood on the matter. "Then, … do you think it's possessive or protective if a man loves his girlfriend so much that he's willing to kill the man she left him for?"

"Possessive," he immediately decided. "If she left him for someone else and he couldn't let go, he's more concerned about his own happiness than hers."

"But if you love someone, it's hard to let go," she pointed out.

"But if she couldn't return his affection, then he was trying to fill his need with the wrong person. She'll come back to him if it's meant to be. Otherwise, he needs to find someone else who can return his feelings, you know?"

Kaila was intrigued by the fact that Tidus had answered without any hint of recognition whatsoever toward Lenne and Koji. Hopefully, that meant he was doing his own thinking, not making judgments based on Shuyin's memories. She decided to pry further. "What if the other guy was the man's best friend?"

"Still possessive. The other guy shouldn't interfere while she's seeing someone else. That's just asking to have your butt kicked."

She was humored at his opinion of his former self. "Of course, _you_ would never do anything like that," she couldn't resist adding.

"Of course not. Do you realize the resentment that would cause? It would turn the best friends into enemies. And if she walked out on her old boyfriend, she could turn around and do the same thing to the new one. And if the new relationship doesn't work out, it'd be ruining a friendship for nothing."

Kaila chuckled lightly. If he only knew. "Okay, what about if the girl was in danger? Is love worth dying for?"

Tidus found himself having to think about that one for a moment. "Well, if it were me, I guess if I really thought there was a chance that my death could make a difference in her survival, ... I'd let go of me. That way, if I tried, at least there's a chance for forgiveness. But if I didn't try to help her and something bad happened, I'd have to live with knowing that I let her die." He paused and looked at her. "I don't think I could live with that kind of guilt, you know?"

Kaila knew Tidus had just opened a window into his borrowed soul without even recognizing it. Now she understood why Shuyin remained unsent after all these years. Incapable of forgiving himself, he needed to hear Lenne say it, but maybe she didn't get that chance.

"Is this some kind of test that I have to pass before I can ask you for another date?" he lightly quipped.

She smiled sadly in response. "Just seeing if you knew the difference between a passing fling and eternity. Life is a passing fling, but death ... Death is for always."

"A-ha! This has to do with my language arts report on star-crossed lovers, doesn't it?" He shook a scolding finger at her. "Love isn't about dying together. It's about living together. Dying doesn't accomplish anything unless it saves a life. Life may be short, but it's what you do with it that lasts for always."

Kaila stared at him in surprise for that unexpected answer. "Are you just saying that to sound impressive, or do you mean it?"

"Is it good enough to talk you out of turning our date into a tutoring session?"

She couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Yes."

"Then, I mean it anyway." He returned a smug smirk, pleased with himself for having figured out her motives, … or so he thought. "Did I pass your test?"

"You aced it," she softly answered with a proud smile.

He drew her into his arms. "Then, this means you'll go out with me again? I've got a blitzball game tomorrow morning. I can come by and pick you up on the way to the sphere pool stadium if you tell me where you live."

Kaila let her cheek rest against his chest and closed her eyes to hear the sound of his heartbeat – his own unique heartbeat – as she tried to gather her conflicting thoughts. "No."

Tidus drew back. "No to the game or ...?"

"You're so much like the first guy that I ever fell for, but … you're not really him."

A hurt expression crossed his face. "I … don't understand. Did you go out with me just because I reminded you of an old boyfriend?"

"I have _thoroughly_ enjoyed being with you, but ..."

"But I'm not this other guy," he finished for her with disappointment.

_No, you're the way I always wished it could have been._ Kaila bit her tongue to keep herself from saying it. She wasn't ready to hand him over to Braska's daughter - not yet. And yet now, she could think of no better gift to offer the young summoner to aid her in her impossible task. Though it killed her to do it, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what she had to say next. "There will always be a place in my heart for you, ... Tidus. You are without a doubt one of the greatest guys I have ever met, and I had the best time tonight, but … I don't think we should see each other again."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're dumping me after one date? A date that you enjoyed? I thought you said I passed the test?"

"The test wasn't for me. There's someone else out there who needs you more than I do, but thank you for helping me relive a moment that I've always wished could have been better."

He was utterly bewildered by her comments again, and it showed. "I shouldn't have kissed you that soon, right? Auron and his stupid sword lectures ..." he muttered, scolding himself.

"Tidus, … please don't try to figure this out. You won't be able to."

"So, I'm supposed to just walk away as if this never happened?"

"It was just one date. You don't even love me."

He shook his head, stood, and looked down at her with a frown. "No, ... but I could have."

Upset that she had upset him, Kaila watched him walk away, then put her forehead to her knees and tried not to cry. She had tried not to argue with him, but they argued anyway. She just wasn't meant to be with him - and yet she was.

Bahamut sat down beside her on the hill. He had been watching in case the new memories needed to be rescued from old ones. "Are you going to be okay with this?"

She nodded and dissolved her solid illusion, returning to her ghostly form. "He retains Shuyin's protective nature, but he completely rejects his foolish decisions. It's as if he didn't sprout horns and get into mischief the way Shuyin did."

"We've left a fair amount of mischief in tact, believe me. Take away too much of that, and he loses personality traits he'll need to be accepted quickly and easily in the real world and to make it on the pilgrimage to the real Zanarkand. Remember, we need a rebel if he's going to break away from the temple's traditions and Lord Yevon's spell of possession."

"I've thought about making another one like him, you know - one just for me. But now I know, it wouldn't be the same." Kaila wiped an eye and stood to face her friend. "No other illusion in this dream feels more real than he does. I'm sure going to miss him around here, but ... I think he's ready."

Bahamut gave her a light smile, glad to see she was letting go so well, in spite of his second-guessing her. "Well," he looked back to the direction in which Tidus had walked away. "You know what has to come next, then."

She nodded with a bittersweet sigh. "I know. He has a blitzball game tomorrow, but we have to derail it for something that will point him toward joining the Abes earlier than he originally planned, without using his mother's death as the catalyst. I have an idea. Let's go talk to Auron."


	34. Chapter 34: Dreams Within Dreams

Chapter 34: Dreams Within Dreams

Tidus strolled home with his hands in his pockets and his gaze on the ground. When he reached the houseboat deck, he saw Auron sitting on the rail and gazing out over the ocean. "You've never given me a curfew you know, so I don't appreciate you sitting up waiting for me tonight."

"I'm here because I like the view." Auron's long, thin ponytail stirred slightly in the midnight breeze. "Where's your date?"

"Heading home I guess."

"She didn't have fun?" Auron reached into his pocket and drew out a memory sphere. Clicking it on, he set it on the rail to record the view of the ocean at night, then discreetly turned it toward Tidus.

"She said she did, but …" Tidus shrugged.

"She dumped you?"

The teen frowned. "I have _never_ been dumped."

"I see."

"She just misses her old boyfriend."

Auron's brows rose in mild surprise. "Sounds like you could use a drink." The warrior monk set his earthenware jug of nog on the railing of the boat beside him - an offer to share.

Tidus blinked at the jug without moving toward it. "You're kidding, right?"

"It'll put hair on your chest, … unless you're not ready for that kind of thing yet." Auron commented over his shoulder and lifted one brow - a baited challenge.

Tidus was in just enough of a funk that he marched forward and took the jug. Popping the cork, he took a mouthful and then proudly set the jug back down. He swallowed the sour tasting stuff without problem, and was surprised at the sweet aftertaste. However, he was even more surprised when the burn kicked in from his throat all the way down into his stomach. As he coughed and choked on the large helping, he thought he saw Auron smirk.

"Moderation is an important value, is it not?" He ignored the teen's discomfort and looked back out to sea.

"What's in that stuff? Bug poison? Shoe polish? Eye of newt?" Tidus coughed again and wiped his mouth wishing he could get the taste off of his tongue.

"Supposedly drinking more will get rid of that first kick."

Tidus looked at the jug with doubt, but then drank another mouthful. Predictably, the same thing happened again. He shook his head to try to straighten his vision back out, then clenched his teeth at the burn.

Auron smirked again, but this time at his gullibiility. "Knowing when to distinguish between the _logical_ and the _illogical_ is good, too. It's logical that something which causes pain one time will cause it again if repeated. Have a seat and tell me what you did to this girl to make her dump you."

"What makes you think ..." Tidus's face suddenly felt hot and light. "I'd want to sit down and tell you anything."

"The fact that you're going to hit the deck in about five seconds, if you don't find a rail to hang onto. You had two big helpings of my special nog."

He had no sooner said it than the teen swayed backwards and landed on his rear.

Auron chuckled quietly.

"Heh, heh, heh ..." Tidus imitated his laugh with disgust then pushed himself up on his hands and knees. Crawling to the rail, he pulled himself back to his feet. Then, feeling sick, he leaned over the top and draped his arms over the side. "You're supposed to be taking care of me, not getting me drunk."

Auron smiled at the almost childish whine in his complaint. "I'm not the one causing your discomfort. I'm just letting you see that consequences are the same, regardless of whether you blame yourself or someone else. Taking responsibility when things go wrong is more helpful than placing blame. Of course, you have to be willing to admit what went wrong first."

"I told you already. She misses her old boyfriend," he answered with annoyance.

"You remind her of him?"

Tidus quieted and closed his eyes, trying to quell the sick feeling in his stomach. "Yeah."

"In a good way, or in a bad way?"

"Well, ... it sounded like a good thing, but … I'm not good enough."

"Did she call out his name while you were in a premature moment of passion?"

Tidus lifted his chin toward him. "You think you're funny, don't you, old man?"

"Not half as humorous as you are, kid." Auron cast him an amused glance. "Care for a third?"

Tidus took the third drink just to spite him. Once the burn had passed, he snorted and looked back out to the ocean. Now, he really felt sick.

"So, how do you feel about her now? Do you want revenge?"

Thinking about it, revenge sounded good at first, but Tidus shook his head. "No."

"Wise choice. Revenge feeds on itself, creating a cycle that never ends."

"How would you know?"

"Revenge gave me this scar."

"Revenge because of a woman?"

"Depends on what you mean by woman."

Tidus gave up trying to figure out the monk's riddles. "I just don't understand how it could be a perfect night and end so abruptly like that. I even passed her stupid little test."

"Test?" Auron quirked a brow in curiosity.

"She started asking me all kinds of questions about deep stuff. And she liked my answers, but as soon as I kissed her -"

"Maybe you're just a bad kisser."

"Am _not_," Tidus snapped defensively. "I just wasn't _him_. And I can't be someone I'm not." Completely unaware of the irony of his words, he put his chin on the rail and look down into the water.

"Well, was there anything that you would have done differently?"

Reviewing the situation in his mind, Tidus shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Then don't blame yourself." Auron lifted his jug, resting it expertly on his forearm, and drank a sip without even flinching. "Did you love her?"

He reluctantly shook his head. "I liked her, but it was just one date."

"Then nothing was lost." Auron set his jug back down. "Did you have a good time?"

Tidus considered their conversation and the fun that they had while it lasted. "Yeah."

"Then it served its purpose. There are other girls out there, you know."

The teen sighed heavily. "Yeah, I know." A small smirk curled his lips. "I might as well let them enjoy me, huh?" He looked up with a cocky grin.

Auron sighed, too, but shook his head at the seeming futility in offering wisdom to the boy's ego. "Want another drink?"

"Pass." Tidus pushed the jug away. "I'm going to bed." He straightened and turned toward the door, though he still felt unstable enough to need to brace himself on the rail. "Oh, and by the way, if you ever insist on chaperoning my dates again by standing in my room like that, I _will _retaliate when you least expect it." He released the rail to walk away and, rather unsteadily, entered the houseboat.

))((

Auron chuckled to himself and reached for the recording sphere to turn it off. Then, he tucked it into his pocket. "Just like his father, … and yet … maybe not."

Kaila and Bahamut appeared at his side, and Kaila stepped forward with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt him."

"I'm not the one who needs the apology, … although I'm surprised you would tell him about the young man who was supposed to have been his prototype."

"I've already apologized to him, but I didn't tell him anything about Shuyin that could be used as a connection to him."

"He said you tested him."

"Yes. I just wanted to see how different he was from Shuyin in matters that created serious problems. Unlike Shuyin, I think Tidus is capable of being a guardian without letting his impulses get the best of him and without carrying harmful guilt."

"I gave him my own test just now. He's not a drinker like his dad was, so that's one less grief for his summoner. And he harbors no bad feelings toward you in spite of his hurt, which is also a good sign."

"Then putting Kaila back into the pattern worked," Bahamut spoke and looked to her.

Kaila saddened. "Auron, … I know I was supposed to be with him again tomorrow, but … I can't. It's too hard to be with Tidus and pretend I don't know him very well. I know him all too well because I grew up with him, and yet, he's … He's so different now. I guess being with him like that made me realize just _how_ different he is. I think the constant he needs tomorrow isn't me. It's you."

The warrior monk was puzzled. "I wasn't here the first time. How can I be the constant?"

"The day after the dance, Shuyin lost his mother. It's what forced him to live independently and join the Abes. So tomorrow, Tidus has to lose you."

Auron grew quiet at the news.

Bahamut faced Kaila with worry. "Will he be able to cope with that alone, if you're not there?"

"I don't know," Kaila admitted. "I only know that if I were physically there, it would be all too easy to make excuses to hold onto him, when I need to be letting go. There is no one left in this world for him to come home to. The sooner he learns that, the better." The Fayth took one last, longing glance toward the houseboat's cabin, then she walked away.

))((

The next morning, Tidus woke feeling terrible. He mentally cursed Auron for offering him that drink last night and lifted his head to see his alarm clock - past noon. Wasn't there something he had to do today? Game ...

"Game!" He sat up in bed and threw off the covers. Standing and stumbling to his drawers to look for a uniform, he slowly remembered he wouldn't be playing at all today - he'd been benched. Good thing Kaila didn't want to come to the game, he supposed, if all he was going to do was sit on the bench. Not wanting to dwell on his losses, he checked the memo pad on the wall for the game time and decided to concentrate on trying to get rid of the awful, lingering aftereffects of the nog. Maybe eating something would help. Staying in his shorts, he tossed the uniform to the rumpled bed and left his room for the kitchen. There, he buttered some bread and popped it into the mini-oven. Selecting the toast option, he poured some juice to try to rinse the awful fuzz from his tongue while he waited.

Auron pushed the door open and smirked at the teen's sleepy expression and messy hair. "And you only had three drinks ... That's called a hangover, by the way."

"Ya think?" Tidus cast him a sarcastic glance to match his tone then clutched his head. "Gah, why didn't you stop me after the first one?"

"And miss seeing you like this?" Amused, Auron poured himself some juice and leaned against the counter.

"Would healing potion would get rid of it?"

"Should - if there's any left."

"Maybe I should go to the game early and get some from the first aid kit in the locker room." He stretched his back and arms as he yawned, trying to bring his senses back into focus a little more for also having stayed out so late.

"There's still some in the bathroom cabinet. And you're not going to the game today." Auron scratched at his light beard scruff.

Tidus snapped out of his stretch. "I have to - even if I'm benched. They'll kick me off the team if I miss games without a valid excuse. My grades have gone up since tutoring with Kaila, though, so I should be off the bench soon. Although, she probably doesn't want to work with me anymore after what happened last night." Discouraged, he pulled a chair out from the bar counter, flipped it around backwards and straddled it, folding his arms across the back and resting his forehead on them.

"That's not going to be a concern for you anymore. Today, you have to go get a job."

Tidus lifted his head. "A what?"

"A _job_," Auron repeated more clearly. "That thing that brings money in to pay for your food."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to be leaving soon, and you need to be able to support yourself."

"But I'm not even seventeen yet."

"Which is why you need to show me that you can handle being on your own before then."

"But why do you have to go?"

"I have other matters that need my attention," he vaguely answered.

Tidus frowned. "That's it? After all these years, you're going to just walk out without any real explanation?"

"You knew this was coming. I told you when you were thirteen. You have six months before your age bumps you into ownership responsibilities for this boat. If you don't want to lose your home, you have to get a job now."

"Who would hire me? The only thing I'm any good at is blitzball, and nobody's going to even consider me for a professional slot at this age," Tidus argued.

"The Abes would."

"Because I'm _Jecht Jr._?" His father was the one thing that still got under his skin rather than rolling off of his back. "You expect me to be like him, don't you? Just like everyone else ... I thought you were different, but you know what? You're just like him. Go ahead and walk away because I don't _need_ anyone watching over me anymore." Angered at having this news sprung on him like this, Tidus stood from the chair and slammed it back against the bar. The mini-oven dinged letting him know his toast was ready, so he retrieved his breakfast, but his fingers accidentally hit the rack. He grabbed the toast anyway and jerked his hand back with a mild wince only after he had transferred his food to his plate. Glowering at Auron, he took his breakfast out of the kitchen to eat in the living room, instead.

))((

Auron sighed to himself, remembering the little boy who burnt his fingers one morning and fussed at him for not giving him a bandage. This time, he had to allow Tidus to get over the sting by himself. "It's going to be a long year," he groaned to the Fayth as they appeared before him.

Kaila sympathized with the warrior monk's unease at purposefully pushing Tidus away. "You won't have to endure the whole year. This time flow will go quickly like the rest, as soon as he is established in a regular pattern again," she reminded the weary guardian. "He'll forgive you, Auron. He can't see it right now, but you're not abandoning him the way Jecht did."

"This is good because Tidus's physical training is of utmost importance," Bahamut added. "And he needs to learn how to take the initiative in prioritizing. It's the final step toward his exit."

Auron nodded in acceptance. That afternoon, Auron took Tidus to the Abes management offices to speak to the head coach and owner of the professional league team. Following Shuyin's pattern, Tidus was turned away from tryouts _until_ he begrudgingly dropped his father's name. At the private try-out invitation, based on his extraordinary talent, he was accepted for a full-time slot as right forward for the team.

With Tidus's physical training secured, Auron began the gradual process of backing away from management of the houseboat. This led to a lot of arguments between them over minor things, so Auron eventually moved out. He returned to check on his almost-grown charge once a day, then once a week. But in the end, the warrior monk promised occasional visits, then left as mysteriously as he came.

))((

Naya stuck her head out the door and raised her fingers to her lips to give a piercing whistle. "Listen up everyone! We've only got a few minutes before the game starts! Who wants an autograph from Jecht Jr.?"

Inside the hallway, Tidus frowned. "I have my own name," he loudly corrected her.

"Doesn't matter. You're new, and you're the son of a legend. Smile, look pretty, and do your sphere kick. They'll love you, even if you mess up. Have fun while you can because once you become yesterday's news, they won't tolerate screw-ups and losing streaks. Fans are the most devoted, yet hardest critics of all." She grinned as anxious blitzball fans ran down the ramp to meet him and ask for autographs. "Sorry, only time for a few. We'll drag him to the Waterwall sports bar in the Neon District after the game. The rest of you can get a piece of him there." Naya shut the door to keep the crowd size under control.

"What?" He felt as if she had just offered him up as the sacrificial main course.

Naya casually strolled back to him. "This will get your mind off the nerves. Trust me." The woman folded her arms over her short, yellow vest and leaned against the wall behind her as she waited patiently for him to do this.

"Have fun," he told himself. It was something important he had told himself a long time ago - something he had forgotten recently. Accepting pen and paper from one of the fans, he gave the boy a smile and signed his name. "There you go."

The boy squinted at the signature. "Tidus? You're the guy that took Zak's place, right?"

"You can actually read my handwriting? My language arts teacher said it sucked."

"Well, it still sucks, but I can read it."

"Oh."

"You look really young for a pro player." Another fan handed him a paper.

"Well, ... I guess I kind of ... am." He didn't want to explain any further than that, but he signed his name and passed the paper back.

Bahamut watched unseen from the sidelines, knowing he would have been next in line. Shuyin had signed his ball with a note to Lenne, but Lenne couldn't be a part of this re-enactment, and neither could he. Bahamut now had to remove himself and his sister from Tidus's time flow the way Kaila had done previously, but doing so made him feel as if he had lost a "big brother" and a good friend. It seemed silly to cry at a happy event like the opening game of the blitzball season, so he poked a finger at the moisture collecting in the corner of his eye, but he wished he could talk and interact with Tidus the way he used to with Shuyin. A moment later, he felt Kaila slip an arm across his shoulders to give him a supportive pat, as they watched the final stage of their ripple ricochet in unpredictable directions.

Tidus straightened after signing autographs and noticed the tall man in the red haori at the side of the crowd. His last days with Auron had been full of tension, and Tidus had not seen him in a couple of months, yet here he was at the opening of his first professional game. "You came," he said in disbelief as he approached the warrior monk in the crowd. "You actually came."

Auron gave the young man a tolerant sigh, as if he never should have doubted him.

Tidus felt awkward for a moment, but then recovered with an optimistic grin. "Want my autograph?"

"Unless you're signing a paycheck over to me, I'm not interested."

"Hey, I have an idea. You want to come with us to the Waterwall after we win?"

"That sounds pretty confident."

"The Abes were last year's champions, and the only difference in the roster this year is me. And, I'm pretty good if I do say so. Well, at least I'm not a _bad_ player, or I wouldn't have made it on the team, right?"

"What if you lose?"

"Well, … we'll have fun anyway," Tidus insisted. "We'll get some dinner, pick up a few girls, go dancing ..." He did his little victory dance, which made the girls in the crowd around him giggle. "See? They think it's a great idea." He faced the girls. "Anyone want to go with us?"

"I do! I do!"

"Me!

"Me, me!"

Auron rolled his eyes. "My idea of fun, and your idea of fun are two different things."

"You can't dance, can you?" Tidus guessed in a taunting tone. "That's okay. I'll let you have all the older women, so you won't have to work so hard to keep up with me."

"Hmph."

"Oh, come on, Auron. Don't be such a stiff."

"Time's up! Sorry, but the game's about to begin!" Naya announced, ushering the fans back out.

"Waterwall after the game," Tidus reminded him, then waved to the crowd before following his teammate back behind closed doors to get ready for the start of the game.

The fans that had gathered behind the stadium quickly ran for their seats, but the two Fayth followed Auron below the sphere pool to stand in a remote corner to watch the game. Bahamut knew the Abes would loose their first match, so he couldn't help but think about Tidus's comments for a minute as they waited for the opening ceremony to begin. "His arrogance still worries me," he commented above the music blaring over the stadium's speakers.

"It's Jecht-itis," Auron muttered. "A genetic personality disorder that breeds overconfidence. The only thing that can cure it is an angry shoopuff, a mouthful of shoopuff milk, and …" The warrior monk quieted as he looked to the stadium where his old friend once played. "And the realization that you can't go home again."

"Losing was always hard for Shuyin. He was such a perfectionist when it came to his games," Bahamut remembered. "The Abes lost to the Duggles once because he went for a long shot, rather than passing to the guy behind him. He was really low that night, but then some drunk mouthed off to him. Shuyin lost control and hit him pretty hard. He doesn't look that strong, but pound for punch he could pack a wallop. We will need to interrupt that incident. If his teammates hadn't invited him to dinner after the loss, Shuyin would have gone home, so maybe erasing that invitation will be enough to avoid that event. Tidus doesn't need that memory floating around in his head."

"Jecht lost his self-control a few times, but only when he was drinking. Since Tidus doesn't seem to share his father's affection for alcohol, that shouldn't be a problem for him."

"Self-control doesn't seem to be an issue for him," Kaila agreed, remembering her conversation with him on the hill. "Overconfidence, however, especially with physical challenges and girls -"

"If he ever becomes overconfident around Yuna, I'll bring him down so fast it'll make his head spin." Auron gave her a cautionary side-glance. "I made a promise to her father, too."

Bahamut looked to Auron. "You would stay with him after we release him into reality?"

"My promise doesn't end until he does." The unsent man cast a glance to the two Fayth. They both knew what he meant. "I owe Jecht that much for taking my place. I owe Tidus that much, so that he doesn't feel abandoned to his fate."

Bahamut frowned to himself with realization. "The night that Shuyin got into a fight - it was ten years to the day that Jecht disappeared. They made a big deal out of it over the loudspeakers during the game. Maybe that's why his game was in a funk - the high expectations to play like his father."

The game opening ceremonies began, and the three spirits turned their attention to the sphere pool where the lights suddenly come on, and the cheers grew louder than the music. Tidus had just stepped up into place for the throw-in, and the crowd was excited. Jecht's son was playing.

))((

Later in the season, after his first major failure in the game against the Duggles, Tidus exited the back rooms of the stadium without a word to autograph seekers. There weren't many still hanging around, but this time, thanks to Bahamut, his teammates didn't even invite him to dinner afterward. Still dressed in his uniform, without having bothered to shower and change into something dry, Tidus walked home alone.

He had no sooner arrived and dropped his duffle bag, however, when someone knocked on his front door. Choking back the frustration he'd been fighting since half-time, he hastily wiped at the tears burning his eyes and drew a breath to appear more presentable before answering the call of a visitor.

"Can I come in?" Auron greeted him.

Tidus was stunned to see the warrior monk had returned, but turning back around, he left the door open so that Auron could come or go as he pleased. At the bottom of the ramp leading up to the door, he stopped and gave a tired stretch as if nothing were wrong. "What do you want?"

Auron came inside the door and stopped. "It was a bad call. Your team lost because of you."

"You came to say _that_?"

"It's been ... ten years." Closing the door, the warrior monk came down the ramp, and Bahamut followed, unseen to Tidus's eyes. "I thought you'd be crying."

"Who, me?" Tidus acted as if he didn't know what Auron was talking about.

Bahamut was relieved to see how quickly Tidus managed to hold his emotions under control, in spite of the disheartening loss and guilt, but it was still hard to see him like this. If Shuyin were here, he could have slopped some polymer goop in his face again to make him laugh, but Bahamut had no idea how to cheer up Tidus. Tidus was usually able to cheer himself, but not tonight. The boy decided it was time to have some fun with this new copy of his old friend, so he ran to the ramp and revealed his presence. "You cried."

Tidus turned at the sound of the boy's voice, just in time to see him disappear. Blinking in disbelief at what he thought he'd just seen, he scanned the empty living room.

Auron was surprised the Fayth would choose to reveal his presence now, however brief, but since he didn't know what his reasoning was in such action, he pretended not to see. "You were trying to do that shot, weren't you? For Jecht?"

"No way." Tidus waved it off like it was nothing. "I gave up on that shot a long time ago. It's just not my style." He scratched his head, puzzled, and wondered if he was imagining things.

Auron quirked a brow at his behavior. "Something wrong?"

"There was a creepy little kid standing here one minute, and the next he was gone."

Bahamut stopped giggling at his prank. "Perhaps he's your conscience reminding you that it's rude to call someone creepy," he spoke as he reappeared again.

"Ah!" Tidus jumped back, but the boy faded once more. "There! Did you see him that time?"

Auron tried hard to keep a straight face. "You're tired. Perhaps you should go to bed early tonight and get some rest."

"Look, I'm not losing my mind," Tidus insisted with a frown. "There was a little kid standing right there! He's the same one that shows up in my dreams - only this time I'm awake!"

Bahamut stiffened and stared at Tidus, stunned. He cast a glance over his shoulder where Kaila stood quietly at the door now, but she met his questioning look with a bewildered shrug.

"You have dreams?" Auron asked, curious.

Tidus was mildly offended. "Of course I have dreams. Doesn't everyone?"

Auron chose his words more carefully. "Are they new dreams? Or do they feel like strange memories? Can you remember much about them?" Maybe they had not been as successful as they thought at redirecting his soul's former thoughts.

Looking around the room in uncertainty, Tidus explained. "Well, ... I see that kid's face. That's how it always starts. And then I feel like I need to go somewhere, but I can never reach it. But then it switches from me running toward this place that's out of reach, to me running away from something chasing me."

Auron frowned. "What are you running from?"

Tidus shook his head. "I don't know." He began to pace lightly. "But when I stop running, I see my old man's face. And then I ..." He paused as if unsure how to continue. "I change."

"Change?"

"Yeah, I feel myself changing into some kind of ... sea serpent." He felt foolish saying it. "It's crazy, I know. I mean there's this big, long tail and these water-wing type fins and my blitz-guard and gloves turn into these clawed ..." Tidus held out his hands before him in a clawed gesture, but stopped and looked at Auron. "Anyway, I just get this feeling about it when I wake up - like I'm glad to realize it was a just a dream, you know?"

_He dreams new dreams_. The Fayth looked to each other and suddenly felt quite distraught. The illusion could grow and change and dream ... like a living thing. They truly had succeeded at creating a living sacrifice out of a dead soul to deceive Yu Yevon. Tidus's transformation into the Final Aeon was practically guaranteed. They should have felt happy. Instead, they understood Tidus's dream and were grateful that he, apparently, did not. It could be very bad for their plans if he were to prematurely make the connection between himself, his father, and Sin.

Tidus could tell by the look on Auron's face that perhaps he shouldn't have said anything. "Sorry. I … didn't mean to weird out on you there." He tried to change his mood. "Hey, how about we hit the Waterwall tonight for a late dinner. You didn't take me up on the last offer, and I haven't eaten yet, so it'll be my treat. They pay me more than your stingy allowance ever did," he lightly joked to the warrior monk.

"Waterwall is closed tonight," Auron lied.

"Closed?" Tidus's nose crinkled. "They never close."

"There was a nasty fight at the bar and someone got hurt. They had to close."

"Oh. Well, … we can grill some fish. How does that sound?"

"Not tonight. I just wanted to check in on you. I can't stay."

"Oh." Tidus nodded in somber acceptance.

"Are you going to be all right?" Auron cautiously asked.

"Yeah. The silence just … gets a little heavy sometimes," he admitted. "Not that I miss you mooching off of me for room and board, or anything," he added with a small smile to cover his disappointment.

Auron glanced toward the door where the Fayth stood. "I'd better be going, then."

"Right." Tidus walked with him to the door and opened it for him. "Well, if you come to my next game, maybe we can get together for dinner then."

Auron knew better than to make that promise. "We'll see." He paused a moment as if he wanted to say more, then but then he turned and left. As soon as he had walked to the end of the pier, he spoke to the two Fayth that he knew were following him. "He was seeing himself change into his own aeon form, wasn't he?" he guessed.

Bahamut materialized in step alongside him, and he was worried. "It would appear so. But where could those dreams be coming from? Tidus doesn't even know what an aeon is, unless Shuyin's memories are seeping through. But none of Lenne's aeons were sea serpents."

"Maybe he somehow absorbed our projected intentions," Kaila suggested materializing on Auron's other side as they walked. "We've been spending a lot of time with him in this dream, and he's made of the same magic." She shrugged, having no explanation for the phenomenon.

"What if it's not just our projections? What if this really is a premonition of things to come for him? Does that mean he'll be changed into the Final Aeon to _defeat_ Sin, ... or _become_ Sin?"

"Are you changing your mind about sending him out there?" Auron challenged.

"Auron?" Kaila stopped walking and looked up at the unsent guardian. "Have we become hypocrites? We're tyring to stop Yevon from sacrificing summoners and their guardians, and yet … we've created Tidus to be a sacrifice, too."

"You didn't think anything about sacrificing his father." Auron frowned, remembering his friend.

"Jecht was only an illusion. We didn't know he had regained his soul until after Yevon tried to take it. I know he seemed real to you, but when we sent him out of here he wasn't. Tidus already has a real soul because Shuyin was real, but if he can dream about his aeon form, maybe he has a real conscience, too – his own conscience, instead of Shuyin's. If he's actually changed Shuyin's soul to make it his own, doesn't that make him alive somehow? What if he's no longer Shuyin at all? What if that makes him unable to resist Yevon the way we hoped? It would be pointless and cruel to send him out there if his chances are no better than Jecht's. And yet, ... we can't keep him trapped in the dream forever if he's ... real."

"He's not real, Kaila. He can't be real." Bahamut argued, though he seemed to be arguing more with himself than her.

"Then what is he?"

"His soul experienced a previous death, so technically he is still part of Shuyin's spirit. He does seem to have his own opinions, goals, and desires, even if they aren't Shuyin's, but he's still made of magic. As for his being able to resist Yevon, Tidus doesn't know or care who Yevon is. You know? Maybe that's enough." But Bahamut didn't sound as certain as his argument.

Auron frowned at their indecision. "Jecht should be told. Tidus may be your champion against Yevon, but illusion or not, he's still Jecht's son." The unsent guardian turned and walked away.


	35. Chapter 35: Get Real

Chapter 35: Get Real

Day was turning into dusk when Auron rolled up the cuffs of his pants and waded into the ocean. He had left his coat, boots, and sword on the sand at the beach. "Jecht ..." The sea looked empty, but the law of convention in this world was based upon what one desired to see - the ability to shape that desire by summoning particles of magic. Auron was not a Fayth or a summoner. He could only express what he desired. "Jecht, if you can hear me - if you're able - please answer. I need to talk to you." There was no need to yell. Physical sound was illusion here, too.

A mirage on the horizon solidified, and Sin's enormous bulk visibly filled the ocean. Before it, a faint apparition appeared and strode toward him. Jecht's spirit was more thin than before, and his mood seemed more somber - evidence that he was becoming less able to break away from Yevon's possession as time wore on. "Long time, no see, old friend."

Auron smiled and held out a memory sphere.

"What's this?" Jecht tried to accept it, but his hands passed right through it. "Ah ...," he muttered in disgust.

Saddened to see his friend so consumed by another being, the warrior monk brushed his thumb against the activation button for him. The discussion with Tidus about his disappointing date began to play.

Jecht stared at the sphere, speechless for a moment. "Is that … him?"

Auron nodded.

"He's taller now. I wouldn't have even known who it was if he didn't look so much like his mother." Jecht tried to accept the sphere again, but became frustrated that his fingers couldn't grasp it. With a small sniffle, he rubbed a finger under his nose and pretended not to feel any moisture burning his eyes. Instead, he got angry. "Why are you feeding my kid that poison of yours? It took me fifteen years and force-fed shoopuff milk to stop drinking."

Auron chuckled at Jecht's scolding - an obvious cover for his longing to see his son once more. "I don't think we have to worry about his drinking habits. Girls are another matter." He tapped the sphere as evidence of that.

"Oh, I already talked to him about that as soon as he was old enough to ask questions."

"Well, I had to talk to him about it again," Auron unhappily informed him. "Sometimes he doesn't listen the first time, … just like someone else I know."

Jecht grinned and chuckled. "How old is he now?"

"Seventeen, and ... it's time."

The blitzball player's grin softened to a small, sober nod of understanding.

"There's something you should know, though. Tidus has had dreams of himself as the Final Aeon - a sea serpent of some kind. But the fact that he can dream at all … The Fayth believe Tidus has somehow fashioned Shuyin's soul into his own unique conscience. He's ... alive now, in a sense - not just an illusion following a thousand-year-old, revised script."

Jecht made a face. "You mean … I have two sons now?"

"Yes, … and no. The Fayth say he's still fundamentally the same kid, but they admit there's something very different about him now. I never knew your son before any of this, so I can't offer my opinion on that. But I've been around him long enough now to say that his thoughts and feelings are every bit as human as our own."

Jecht looked down at the image playing in the sphere. "Does he know he's not real?"

Auron shook his head. "It's too early to tell him. If he's going to do this, he needs to learn about Spira first. Then, we'll tell him about you, ... then himself."

His friend seemed to understand the reasoning behind that progression.

"There is … one more thing you should know. The summoner the Fayth have chosen to help ... It's Yuna."

"Braska's Yuna? A summoner?"

Auron gave a nod. "She's training in Besaid."

Jecht turned away and stared at the shell of the large aeon that had already caused so much grief for so many centuries. "I don't want to hurt them," he protested, but his tone was soft, ... husky.

"Then don't."

"It's the only way."

"He's your son."

Jecht faced him with stern remorse. "If we can't break the cycle, Yevon will claim his soul after I'm released. If we can't break the cycle, little Yuna will end up like her father, even though he gave his life to save her. We may not get another chance if we let go of this one."

Auron reluctantly accepted his friend's decision without causing him further heartache over it. "Then, we need you to take him to Besaid. Can you do that?"

"I'll try, but my days of being able to control my own course are numbered now. Yevon's hate and the anger are so heavy, the impulse to avenge is becoming difficult to ignore."

Even if the warrior monk tried, he knew there was no way he could understand what it was like to be consumed with such mindlessly violent emotions.

"Don't forget to give the boy my sword."

"I'll be sure he gets it, although I'm not sure he'll know how to use it. The Fayth are betting that Shuyin's sword skills as a former guardian will reflexively surface, but Tidus never met Shuyin's girlfriend, so he never trained with a sword to be her guardian. So, I have my doubts."

"Maybe I should give him a warm-up practice, then - free of charge." Jecht tried to smile, but his sorrow was beginning to show through.

))((

"Braska's daughter has completed her apprenticeship." At the summit of Mt. Gagazet, overlooking the ruins, Valefor stood before all of the gathered Fayth to update them on her end of the situation. "Lady Yuna is almost ready to attempt her first summoning," she announced. "And people have spotted Sin moving south toward Bikanel Island, so fear is rising. I hear their prayers at the temple. They're begging to be spared this time and renewing their vows to Yevon in hopes that this time the Calm will be eternal." She paused for a moment, disheartened by having to report what she had seen and heard. The other Fayth stationed at the other temples nodded and mumbled in agreement since their locals were beginning to fear the inevitable, too. Valefor turned to face Bahamut. "We're out of time. If you wish to send the illusion to her, we must do it now."

"How is the illusion progressing?" Ixion asked. "Is it ready?"

"Tidus," Kaila spoke up in slight irritation. "His name is Tidus." He was no longer a thing, but a _who_.

Bahamut flashed Kaila a frown from within the shadows of his hood, reminding her not to take their ignorance so personally. The rest of the Fayth did not know Tidus as well as they did. To them, he was still just an experiment. "We've patched together seventeen years of experiences for Tidus, based on Shuyin's memories, in a manner that will hopefully avoid the mistakes that ended his life and are keeping him unsent. Tidus is still very resentful toward his father, but that should help him defeat Sin. But there is one thing we didn't plan on: he says he can dream. Memories can't dream new dreams, … but maybe old souls with new experiences can. We think Tidus has somehow developed his own consciousness apart from Shuyin's. It's almost as if he's ... real."

"An illusion can never be real, Bahamut," Shiva reminded him. "Regardless of appearances, he is still only particles of magic bonded to a dead soul and blinded by lies."

"Do flesh and blood determine what's real?" Kaila angrily spoke in Tidus's defense. "We're real, even if we're just spirits. Rocks and trees are real, but they don't express thoughts and feelings the way he does. Define real. If Tidus believes he is real, that's all that matters."

Shiva smiled apologetically. "You misunderstand me. I don't mean to insult him. That he turned out so well is a testimony to your dedication to him and his own will to live. What I mean is that his true composition should still be enough to accomplish our purposes."

"But, if he's alive, should we still be using him this way against his knowledge?" Kaila was uncertain. "Isn't that what Yevon did to us?"

"Did you tell Jecht?" Ifrit asked. "What did he say?"

Bahamut looked to Kaila, sharing her uncertainty. "Jecht says to go ahead."

"Then, I agree with Jecht," Ifrit answered. "The cycle must be broken, but no ordinary human or spirit has been able to survive Yevon's possession. If Tidus's unique existence is enough to help him cast off that spell, then among the choice of possible sacrifices - like his father before him - he is the best option. We can't force him to become the Fayth of the next Final Aeon, but we hope he will take up that purpose as his own, once he hears how much it is needed."

Bahamut saddened, but agreed with his reasoning, and Kaila almost started to cry.

"I understand how you have come to think of your illusion as a real person, and why it hurts to give him up to this," another Fayth spoke, as he moved forward through the gathering.

"Lord Zaon." Kaila looked up in surprise. "But … I thought ..."

The golden guardian nodded with a gentle smile. "I was in the Farplane, but Ixion visited to let the Fayth who are at rest know what was happening and ask our advice on the matter. It is a strain to be here, and the Farplane calls me back, so I cannot stay long. But I have a stake in this, too, you see. I miss my wife. She is unsent like Shuyin. As he has become bitter, she has become cold - both of them lost their compassion by clinging to their hurt from the past. Yunalesca must be sent to rest, or she will stubbornly keep her father alive forever. She is as much a part of the cycle as Sin and Lord Yevon. Your illusion will have to slay more than one unsent soul infected with grief before he is done. He will have to slay my wife."

Bahamut had not considered how Zaon might be feel about their plans.

"Your illusion needs to believe he is real so that he will have the desire to end this spiral of death once and for all – the desire to free those trapped within it. If he does not experience the value of real life, he is less likely to protect it."

"Then, … you will help us give him the extra pyreflies needed to make him feel real outside the dream?"

"I will do all that I can. Where is he now?"

"Practicing on the beach for the upcoming tournament," Bahamut answered.

"But, … that's the tournament in which Bevelle attacked Zanarkand. Lord Yevon would never allow those memories to be replayed here, would he?"

Bahamut smiled in a soft, sly manner as the gathering of the Fayth headed down the mountain to summon more pyreflies for Tidus. "Bevelle won't attack this time - Jecht will."

))((

The night of the Jecht Cup Memorial Tournament, Tidus donned his black shorts and yellow hoodie uniform, then stuffed some street clothes into his duffle bag for after the game. But when he exited his boathouse, he found a small crowd of blitzball fans already waiting for him on the pier. He'd never had fans waiting outside of his house before. At first, he didn't know what to think of it, but then he decided he rather liked it - no more heavy silence. He signed a few blitzballs, flirted with a few girls, and then tried to go on his way when some of the children in the crowd begged him to teach them some of his famous game shots. "Hey, I got a game to play," he tried to excuse himself.

"Then teach us after!" one of them insisted.

"Maybe tonight, ...um, ...well..." He cast a glance back toward the two girls he had flirted with earlier. This choice was a no-brainer. He just had to make up an excuse to ditch the kids for the girls.

Before he could open his mouth again, Bahamut came forward from the back of the crowd and materialized before him. "You can't tonight."

Tidus was mute for a moment as he blinked at the boy. Was he real this time, or imagined again? "I mean ... tomorrow," he told the children, trying not to let his face show the questions that were popping into his mind.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The kids gave him a blitzball salute and he laughed and waved to them as he walked away. He looked for the hooded boy again, but he was already gone. Bothered, but not frustrated, Tidus shrugged it off and continued on his way. He paused under one of the high-rise buildings to look up at the electronic billboard with his father's picture on it. Then, he gave it a cynical snort and ran toward the stadium. People from all over Zanarkand had come to see the tournament, and as he approached the front gate, hundreds of screaming fans ran to swarm him. He had never seen so many!

"Make way, make way! Coming through! Sorry! Hey, I'm gonna be late!" His shirt was snagged by multiple hands as he tried to squeeze past them. "Hey, let go of me!" he half-laughed, enjoying every minute of it. He flashed an identification card into the force field gate and it allowed him to pass through before solidifying again.

Inside the stadium, he shook out his unruly blond hair, drew a breath, and headed down into the locker room. Going straight to his locker, he hung his duffle bag from it and dug out his street clothes and sneakers to place in the locker. "That crowd out there is nuts," he commented to Naya. "Why did they lock them out? I could barely reach the gate."

"Well, apparently they were trying to sneak into places they had no business sneaking into - like back here. Half of those fangirls don't come here to watch the game. They just want to watch our little poster boy wiggle his ass when he makes a goal."

He acted mildly offended. "Are you mocking me?"

"Oh, please," Kyril commented from her locker. "You enjoy the attention, or you'd say something about it. " She and Naya laughed together as they did an imitation of his trademark victory dance.

Tidus laughed it off. Okay, so maybe he did enjoy the attention - just a little.

"Toma! He's here!" Naya called toward the back stairs.

"It's about time," Toma called from the top of the stairs where he was recording the pre-game activities near the sphere pool. "Hey, Jecht Jr. Since it's your first time up for the Jecht Cup, they've decided you're the one up for greeting the fans and throwing the ball into the sphere pool tonight - to honor your dad, and all that."

"Yeah, be careful not to throw out an arm giving that ball a toss, or we might just have to bench you," Kiryl sarcastically added from the stairs.

The other players chuckled.

"Well, in that case I'll throw it in some sissy underhanded manner like you would," Tidus smirked as he checked his blitz gloves and shoes. More laughter and a few "ooohs" rose from his teammates as they kidded their way out of their pre-game jitters. When he was done checking his uniform, Tidus checked his game play notebook and shoved it back in his locker, along with the empty duffle bag. Then he locked the door and checked his shoulder guard to be sure it was strapped on tight. With only a few minutes to go, he went to one of the shower stalls and stood under a stream of cold water for a few seconds, hoping the temperature shock would help him focus on his game, more than the partying afterward.

His coach approached and passed the blitzball to him, giving him a proud slap on the back. "No daredevil stunts up on the axis this time. Keep it clean and safe. You'll have plenty of opportunity for stunts in the pool." He paused before walking away. "Oh, um, … you didn't happen to work on that little trick that we talked about, … did you?"

"I can't do it," Tidus told him again.

"Okay, no problem." His coach smiled, understanding. "Just thought that would be a cool surprise to show off for the Jecht Cup finals, if you could."

Tidus left his coach, climbed the stairs, and waded through the calf-high water of the sphere pool's central axis to sit on the support bridge with a sigh. Tucking the ball between his feet and under the seat, he took one look at the distant signs of life surrounding him in the dark, enormous stadium, then he leaned his head back against the wall of the axis and closed his eyes to wait.

"Are you nervous?" Toma asked, still recording.

"Nah, just thinking of what I'm going to rename that cup once it's ours."

Toma chuckled and headed back to the stairs to leave their star player alone with his pre-game thoughts and join the team huddle. The noise of the crowd fell silent to Tidus's ears until the only thing he heard was the beating of his own heart. Tonight, his game had to be flawless. Tonight, he had to be Jecht's son - just for one night. _No ..._ His eyes opened as the axis machina started to hum. _Tonight belongs to me. Sun and waves … I own this pool now, Old Man, and I can win this thing if you stay out of it. That's the only thing that matters tonight - a win_."

The lights flashed on, and the music started, letting everyone know that it was time for the game to begin. The crowd roared as a water spell was generated in the center of the bowl-shaped arena floor. The vertical axis ring lifted as the cybernet activated, and the stadium dome split, unfolding and opening to the stars. On cue, Jecht Jr. stood from his resting place on the main axis and stepped up on one of the small, raised platforms within the machina ring. Blitzball tucked under hand, he was the center of attention to thousands of adoring fans.

The water spell finished forming with dramatic flare, the laser lines blinked on inside the pool, and the scoreboard lit up. His introduction to the crowd was drowned out, but everyone knew who he was anyway, so it didn't matter.

))((

Auron took the lift to the ceiling of the one of the tallest buildings on the eastern outskirts of the city. Stepping out onto the roof, he paced ... and waited. Finally, when a swell of ocean began to rise behind him, he lifted his jug of nog in greeting. Then, drinking a toast to their effort, he headed back down to the streets.

The warrior monk walked calmly toward the stadium, though fans of the game were running toward it with excitement. Nobody noticed that behind them, the spires of the buildings were elongating and twisting in a surreal manner, being sucked into the vortex between reality and the realm of magic. Nobody noticed the huge ball of water formed from the sea into the sky above the city.

))((

The ball was already in play. Tidus broke free from a tackle and punched another player with such force that he sent him right through the cyber-net that held the water of the pool in its spherical shape. His opponent hit the concrete buffer between the balcony and the row below it, then dropped head-first onto the laps of the people beneath him.

The Abes scored the first point of the game. Back in play, the ball passed around multiple times, finally shooting high into the air above the water dome. Tidus swam toward the surface so fast that he broke it like a leaping dolphin. He soared high, arching backwards in one fluid movement to kick the ball, but before he could complete the impossible shot, his upside-down view of the night sky revealed the surprise arrival of the monstrous sphere of water floating in the sky. Suddenly, he saw multiple missiles fire from it, and in the blink of an eye explosions ripped through the skyline spires of the city.

At the same time, all of the foundations of the floating islands on the waterfront were hit. Zanarkand was burning from the top down and from the bottom up. The force of the explosions sent a tidal wave crashing down over the city, demolishing everything in its path, including the stadium. Towers erupted in one explosion after another until the huge tidal wave from the attack crashed down on the city in a macabre attempt to put out the flames with a flood.

The sphere pool collapsed while Tidus was still above it, but when he started to fall back down, he caught hold of the vertical axis high above the open arena. As he struggled to hang on, Zanarkand began to crumble and wash away right before his eyes. The stadium swayed as it began to sink, and when a second explosion rocked the building, his fingers slipped. The blitzball player fell into the dark, cold seawater below. Fear and confusion rushed through Tidus's mind as he tried to figure out what was happening. He could see that the stands were littered with the bodies of the drowned or otherwise injured victims, but strangely, all of their bodies floated away in puffs of colored light.

He left the grisly scene toward the crowded exit where people were pushing and shoving to get out before their lung capacity failed them. Tidus tried to weave his way to the front. He intended to help them reach the surface if they would just let him through, but they, too, began to disperse into sparkles of colored light. Panicking that he would disappear too, he made his way to the exit and climbed up on the sinking platform.

Finally, he stumbled through the broken gate while it was still above the water and headed down the steps. There, he spotted a familiar face just a short distance away. "Auron! What are you doing here?"

"I was waiting for you."

Tidus couldn't believe the man was standing there so calmly when all hell was breaking loose around them. "What are you talking about?" Tidus watched Auron walk away from the stadium, and not quite knowing what else to do, he followed. People frantically raced past them, and the city continued to ignite and collapse into the ocean. Tidus had a hard time keeping an eye on Auron in all the madness. Then, suddenly, everything stopped - everything except him. A fear even greater than what he felt hanging high above the stadium crept over him sending shivers up his spine as he looked around trying to make sense of the stop-motion blur. What was happening to his world?

Bahamut approached him. "It begins."

Tidus turned at the sound of the kid's voice. "Wha -?" Sure enough, it was the kid from his dream - his nightmare.

"Don't cry," Bahamut apologetically encouraged him, before unfreezing the time flow again.

Tidus's heart raced as the world returned to action around him. "What the...? Hey! Wait!" He spotted Auron and ran down the high way to meet up with him again. He was heading straight toward the worst of the destruction - toward the ocean. "Hey, not this way!"

"Look." Auron guided Tidus's eyes up toward the large ball of water hanging in the sky over the city. "We called it Sin."

Tidus stepped back in wide-eyed awe. Whatever it was, the sphere of water looked like it was made of the same magical water that made up the arches that rose above the city to mark the entrance to the port. "Sin?" His attention was drawn away from one monstrosity to another - a large black squid-like fiend ejected hundreds of small clam-like spawn all around it, and they began a rush to take over the city. His breath caught in his throat, having never seen such creatures before, and he was quickly surrounded by the large, insect-like things. They snapped and jumped at him, and he tried to fight them off with his bare hands, until he fell back and was nearly stampeded by them.

"Take it." Auron offered Tidus his father's sword. He watched as the young man hesitantly accepted it and gazed at its beauty for a moment, raising it high in the air before its weight nearly pulled him backwards and back down to the ground. "A gift from Jecht."

"My old man?" Tidus couldn't picture his father training with a sword, but he supposed anything was possible before he knew him. He attempted to use the blade against one of the Sin spawn and promptly fell backwards again, but he quickly pushed himself back up, determined to learn how to defend himself with it.

"I hope you know how to use it," Auron muttered.

Tidus tried again. This time, with a short hop, he slammed the sword through the fiend and watched as its body disappeared into a swarm of pyre flies. But as soon as he took one out, another dropped into its place.

"These ones don't matter. We cut through!" Auron instructed, nearly cursing Jecht aloud for sending so many spawn for this little warm-up session. "Don't bother going after all of them. Cut the ones that matter, and run!"

Once they sliced their way through the barricade of smaller Sin spawn, they ran toward the larger fiend producing them. Tidus wondered why Auron was leading him toward these things instead of away from them. It didn't make sense. None of this did, but at least the sword became easier to manage the more than he used it. Frustrated with not being able to get past the large fiend, he sprang forward into a cartwheel flip and to put extra strength behind his sword's chop. He surprised himself with success of the move and the kill. As the body dissipated, the path opened for them to keep running. He couldn't help but look up at the billboard once more when they ran past it. "What are you laughing at, old man?" The way that he chose to use his sword maybe, or just the fact that he was trying to use it? "Auron! Let's get out of here!"

Auron remained calm and looked around. "We're expected."

"Huh?"

Auron continued to run toward the worst of the chaos.

"Gimme a break, man!" Tidus complained, but he continued to follow.

More spawn landed in front of them and behind them, sandwiching them between an impossible number of fiends to try to fight.

"Hmph. This could be bad." Auron pointed out a wrecked, machina fuel drum on the side of the highway. "That - knock it down!"

"What?"

"Trust me. You'll see."

Though he wasn't sure why the warrior monk wanted him to target that instead, Tidus began pounding his hits into the line the kept it hooked on the side rail. Spines flew from the flickering wings of the creatures spraying into his arms and legs like large needles. He gasped at the pain, but continued to try to slice through the fuel chain. When the connection line between the barrels was finally severed, Tidus jumped back in time to avoid a nasty explosion. The combustible contraption fell from the bridge and hit the bottom supports, blowing up the fiends, the bridge, and the building next to it.

"Go!" Auron shouted to him, continuing to run as the bridge began to collapse beneath them. He pointed up.

Tidus looked up and made an incredible leap meant only for his sphere shots, but this time, he was too desperate to aim for precise acrobatics. He grabbed onto part of a broken road facing upward, but as he hung there, struggling to pull himself up, he still wondered how in the world Auron thought this would save them from the destruction. Beyond this point, there was no where else to go, unless he intended to dive into the ocean away from everything that was happening in the city.

Auron climbed up the side of the broken road and walked across the top of it, calm as always.

"Auron!" Tidus's fingers and arms ached as he struggled, unable to pull himself up. "Auron!"

Behind them, Zanarkand was disappearing into the sphere of water that contained Sin. Chunks of the dream world's roads, buildings, and statues floated up into Sin.

))((

Auron looked over his shoulder. "You are sure?"

No longer able to break away from his soul's confinement, Jecht stood a few feet away among the chaos swirling inside of Sin. Stray chunks of the dream that had been sucked inside the magical armor became solid, forming a strange sort of surreal, but damaged version of Zanarkand behind him. He folded his arms across his chest and looked as if he wanted to protest, but he made himself nod in confirmation of their plan to hijack his kid out of Yevon's dreamworld.

Auron looked back down at Tidus. "This is it." He snatched the collar of the blitzball uniform vest. "This is your story. It all begins here." Auron jerked the young man up with one incredibly strong tug, and the weave of the magic bent and twisted in the toxin making every inch of Tidus's body even more solid than it was before.

Tidus cried out in panic as the magical particles that made up his body transferred and solidified into reality. Once he was inside Sin, he looked around, and had just enough time to register bewilderment, rather than recognition, before he lost consciousness.

Auron knelt over his charge's prone form and looked back to Jecht. "Sleep spell?"

Jecht drew near and knelt beside Auron, trying to absorb the fact that his son was a young man now after not having seen him for so long. Hesitantly, he placed a hand on Tidus's golden-blond head. "We've got to get him out of here before ..." He gritted his teeth and drew back.

"We're at Bikanel, right? How long will it take you to swim to Besaid from here?"

Jecht shook his head and his crimson eyes began to darken. "No time!" he answered in a voice that was even more gruff than his natural one.

"Jecht!" Auron rose and grabbed his shoulders. "Shake it off! We've got to get to Besaid!"

"I can't!" He was trying, and failing, to resist a forced transformation. Yevon was aware of their presence and summoning Braska's Final Aeon to fight. "Get him out of here! Get him away from me! He's not ready to face us yet!"

Knowing it was too late for the father, Auron grabbed the son and heaved him over his shoulder before making a hasty retreat toward Sin's mouth. Jecht's aeon roared at them and drew his flaming sword from within his own chest, but he resisted Yevon's command to strike long enough to allow them to escape.

In reality, Sin had never left the ocean to fly above the dream. So, as Sin opened its mouth, Auron ran into the oncoming water and fought to hang onto Tidus as the waves cast them about and Sin's thrashing threatened to push them under. When he surfaced, he pushed Tidus up onto a clump of rocks in the middle of some washed out ruins. "Baaj? Damn it, Jecht! You've stranded us out in the middle of nowhere!" he shouted back toward the monster. The warrior monk knew it couldn't be helped, but it frustrated him all the same.

Ducking back under the water and drew his large sword, slashing it as hard as he could across Sin's shell. Now that Yevon was in control of Jecht, Auron had no hesitations about fighting. Sin took the bait and turned on the warrior monk to pursue him. The unsent guardian felt no cold, no fatigue, and no fear, so he would do whatever it took to keep Yevon away from Tidus, until the boy was ready to fight back. With Sin bearing down on him every inch of the way, Auron swam toward the tiny string of islands west of the sunken ruins before he found a place to take refuge.

))((

Back in the dream, everything had returned to normal. The buildings stood tall, the stars shone brightly, and the waves were peaceful once more. It was pleasant, but there was nothing of interest in Dream Zanarkand anymore. On the verge of tears, Kaila sat on the deck of the once-again empty houseboat and stared at the seemingly endless sky beyond the calm horizon. Beside her, Bahamut completely sympathized with her forlorn mood. "We can't do anything more. It's up to them now."

))((

When Tidus woke the next morning, after the sleep magic wore off, he found himself on the rocks, surrounded by water. It was cold and stormy, and a colorful bird was the only living thing in sight. "Anybody there? Auron?" He was alone, frightened, and had no idea how he had come to be here. "Heeeeeeey!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice only echoed off of the dark, foreboding tower in the distance ahead of him. There was nowhere else to go, so he left the safety of the rocks and swam toward it.

He was nearly eaten by a giant water fiend along the way, but Tidus made it inside the ruins. Cold, wet, and hungry, he searched for items to build a fire. He flopped on the floor with exhaustion for a moment, but then sat up and drew his knees to himself, trying to keep warm. He heard every unidentifiable noise the creepy place had to offer, until he started nodding off. When his fire began to die out, he turned to look for fresh kindling and found himself facing yet another fiend. He watched wide-eyed as the lizard-like thing raced with incredible speed along the wall around him and then dropped to the floor to challenge him. This strange place had entirely too many monsters! Drawing his father's longsword, he tried to rid himself of the threat, but was surprised when strangers dressed in stranger clothing came into the ruins to help him. He couldn't understand a word they said, but he thought he had been rescued, … until the girl who seemed to be leading the group punched him in the stomach and her male cohorts dragged him away to their ship.

))((

That evening, as Jecht calmed and regained control of his own mind, he gave up on trying to find Auron again, and went back for Tidus. He returned to Baaj just in time to see him being taken onto the Al Bhed ship. Following them south a short distance, he lurked under the waters, watching them attempt to retrieve a sunken airship. As much as he hated to do it, he attacked the ship to get his son back. Washing Tidus overboard and swallowing him as he had before, Jecht cast more sleep magic on him and finished carrying him all the way to the coast of Besaid. By daybreak, Jecht carefully pushed Tidus back into the water, trusting his kid's blitzball swimming skills to help him make it the rest of the way to the shore. Then, he turned and left before he was tempted to attack once more.

))((

The cold, clear water of Besaid's beach quickly woke Tidus, but when he surfaced he had no idea where he was. He had learned from Rikku, the Al Bhed girl on the ship, that Zanarkand had been destroyed a thousand years ago. That couldn't be right. If that was true, how was he still alive? And how could he ever go home? This tropical place didn't look anything like Zanarkand.

Suddenly, the thud of a blitzball against the back of his head snapped his attention to some people on the shore. Civilization at last! "Hey!" He waved to get their attention. Was he ever glad to see them! Ducking under the water, he used his head to push the ball high into the air, then flipped into a sphere shot to send the ball back to them.

A big man with carrot-colored hair started to catch the ball, but then side-stepped the incredibly wild shot that went way over their heads and beyond them, instead. "Woah-ho-ho!"

))((

A grown man himself now, Wakka had taken up the sport of blitzball as a profession. And though he made no connection between the stranger in the water now and the stranger that had stunned him when he was a kid, he knew a good draft pick when he saw one. He chuckled to himself at the prospect. Wakka happily introduced himself and strategically offered to get him some food before requesting the favor of playing on his team for an upcoming tournament. Since he thought Sin's toxin was responsible for making Tidus forget even the simple things about the world in which he lived, he patiently answered any questions Tidus had. He promised that if they took him to Luca for the tournament, someone was bound to know him there and be able to help him find his way home.

Grateful to simply be around friendly people in this strange new world, Tidus readily accepted both invitations and followed him back to his village.

Standing on the beach behind them, Valefor smiled.


	36. Chapter 36: The Summoner's Guardians

Chapter 36: The Summoner's Guardians

When Tidus woke from his nap, he found himself alone once more. Besaid was an extremely small village, so he didn't think Wakka could have gone far. Following a hunch based on an overheard conversation before his nap, Tidus went to look for him in the temple.

There, he found the red-headed blitz player speaking to a priest that had visited earlier, but they seemed to be worried. Wakka explained that a summoner had disappeared into a room of forbidden access. Tidus didn't understand anything about their traditions, and any religion that claimed Zanarkand was a holy place and used a blitzball cheer as their prayer was just plain strange, in his opinion. But when Wakka admitted that the room could be dangerous, the fact that the Church of Yevon knowingly condoned such harm didn't set well with Tidus at all. Concerned for this summoner which no one seemed to be willing to help, and in spite of the warnings from both Wakka and the priest, Tidus ran up the stairs and pushed his way into the forbidden chamber. Everyone else gasped in offense.

Inside, he found himself facing a barren corridor with glowing spheres and glyphs, and after walking the length of the place from beginning to end, he realized it was a puzzle. Fascinated by the unusual challenge, he immediately set about trying to solve it to find the next passage through. When Wakka caught up to him, he reluctantly agreed to take Tidus with him down into the Cloister of Trials and explained more about summoners and their guardians as they went.

In one of the interior chambers, Wakka and Tidus met a woman with long, black braids and a long, black-leather dress. Lulu's crimson eyes seemed to cut right through him as she fussed at Wakka for bringing the stranger into the forbidden chamber.

"Is the summoner all right?" Tidus asked, looking to the only other person in the room - a large, blue, bi-pedal lion with a broken unicorn-like horn. He was twice the size of anyone else and had a menacing look in his yellow eyes.

Insulted at Tidus's presence, Lulu faced him with ice-cold suspicion and a soft, but sharp tone. "Who are you?"

The door suddenly opened and a second young woman dressed in a lightweight, shoulder-less furisode entered the room at the top of the stairs. She paused for a moment, dizzy, and then started to fall. Like everyone else in the room, Tidus gasped and started forward to catch her, but the beast-man reached her first and cradled her in his massive arms in a surprisingly gentle manner. He growled in warning for Tidus to stay back, so he kept a cautious distance while he waited to see if she was okay.

The young woman regained her strength enough to fix her hair and stand. "I've done it. I have become a summoner." Her face was beaded with sweat from whatever she had endured in the chamber of the Fayth, but she was happy with her accomplishment.

Tidus didn't realize his mouth was hanging open in surprise. He had thought the summoner was an old wise man, like a priest. But this girl looked about his age and was actually rather pretty. The beast-man was still glaring at him, though, so Tidus shut his mouth and kept his distance from them.

When the new summoner and her guardians left the chamber, Tidus followed and watched silently as everyone inside the temple gathered to congratulate her. He guessed being a summoner was a pretty important position for her to get that much attention for it. But even with Wakka's brief explanations, he still didn't understand much about it.

When the crowd that surrounded the summoner and her guardians moved outside the temple, Tidus got separated from Wakka and ran out behind them to look for him.

"Hey! Over here!"

Tidus stopped and looked in the wrong direction, until he was grabbed in a head lock by the other blitz player and dragged toward a large circle in the center of the village's only road. "What? Ah-ah-ow!" He stumbled after him and tried to pull free.

Wakka pushed people out of the way, receiving a few dirty looks for his brash behavior, but he made room for his new friend to watch the summoning. "Wait till you see this!"

"I can't see anything!" Tidus complained since he was being held facing the opposite direction. Pushing Wakka away, he readied himself for another abrupt tackle, when he realized something was happening within the circle where the summoner stood.

"Ready!" Wakka cued the new summoner.

"Okay," she answered with a small, shy smile.

Tidus watched as the young woman lifted her staff and wove a spell that drew colorful glyphs of magic on the ground and in the air. Then, a large bird-like creature burst from the clouds and came down to her. His first thought was that it was another fiend, and his hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword. But no one ran, and the monstrous bird did not attack. When the young woman who had summoned it stepped forward to stroke the brilliant red feathers beneath its sharp beak, Tidus could hear the creature emitting a growling purr. Everyone seemed pleased and offered more congratulations. So, this was what a summoner could do? He was impressed.

))((

That night, Valefor left her tomb within the temple and walked through the people gathered around a celebratory bonfire in the middle of the village. She spotted Yuna chatting amid a circle of villagers and moved to sit down beside her new summoner. Valefor looked around for Tidus and smiled lightly at the memory of her first meeting with Shuyin. It was good to have him "back", even if she missed Lenne.

Valefor giggled at how Wakka talked Tidus into joining the Besaid Aurochs. The Fayth's illusion had been eagerly accepted by one person, at least. But it was the summoner's attention that Tidus needed to draw if their plan was going to work. Valefor worried for a moment that the summoner would be too shy to approach their illusion and talk to him, but her worries were put to rest when Yuna smiled at Tidus, and he decided that was enough of an excuse to introduce himself.

The villagers in the circle, however, didn't want him near. They had witnessed his heretical disregard in entering the Cloister of Trials earlier, and they weren't likely to forget it any time soon. Unfriendly remarks were made to keep him away, and Valefor could tell Tidus was about to say something he probably shouldn't, when the summoner surprised everyone by standing and leaving the bonfire circle to speak with him directly.

"I'm Yuna." Her soft brown hair curled gently beneath her chin as she smiled at him again. "Thank you so much for your help earlier."

"I'm sorry about that. Wasn't that ...? Wasn't I not supposed to ... Guess I kind of overreacted."

"Oh, no. I was ... overconfident."

He was lightly amused because he could easily relate to that and tried to think of something else to keep the conversation going. "Um, I saw that aeon thing. That's amazing!"

"Really?" She leaned forward slightly to hold his attention for a moment, as if completely unaware that she already had full command of it. "Do you think I can become high summoner?"

Valefor giggled again as Tidus lost himself in Yuna's unusual eyes, but he managed a nod in spite of himself.

"Lady Yuna." A child approached and interrupted them. "Come play with me some more."

Yuna smiled in agreement to the child, but turned back to face Tidus. "So, tomorrow, then."

He was disappointed the child had interrupted them so soon, but refrained from showing it. "Tomorrow?"

"We're going on the same boat, aren't we?"

"Oh, really?" He guessed she meant the boat to Luca that Wakka had been talking about.

"We can talk more. You can tell me all about Zanarkand."

Valefor was as pleasantly surprised as Tidus was. Everyone else had laughed at him when he told them where he was from, but Yuna took it in stride and seemed to believe him. The fact that she wanted to know more was a good sign.

As Yuna returned to the circle where she was seated before, Wakka came to stand beside Tidus. "She's cute, ya?" Wakka nudged an elbow against Tidus's arm in a mildly teasing manner.

"Yeah."

"Don't get no ideas," the guardian promptly scolded.

Tidus smirked. "No promises there, big guy." He flashed Wakka a side-glance of mischief, but then turned his gaze back to Yuna as she talked to the other villagers. "Hey, but what if _she_, like, comes on to me?"

"That's not going to happen," Wakka warned. "If you get tired, let me know. I had a bed made for you."

"Thanks." Tidus walked to the fire to warm himself, but his gaze drifted back toward Yuna.

Valefor noted the way Yuna's eyes occasionally lifted in Tidus's direction as she continued her conversation with someone else. With a grin of satisfaction, the Fayth closed her eyes and entered the dream.

))((

"Well?" Bahamut asked as soon as the other Fayth appeared in their usual meeting spot on the houseboat.

"Yuna has successfully summoned my aeon," Valefor proudly announced. "She's taking a ship to Kilika tomorrow morning to seek out Ifrit."

"And Tidus? How is he doing?" Kaila asked, nervously chewing her bottom lip.

"He's confused, and … he almost got in trouble at the temple by entering the Cloister of Trials without permission."

Bahamut groaned and shook his head at the typical Shuyin-like tendency for trouble. "But … he's still Tidus, right? I mean, he hasn't started acting strange or violent, has he?"

"Not at all. In fact, he's already made friends with one of Yuna's three guardians," Valefor informed them, much to their relief. "Wakka convinced Tidus to join his blitzball team, so they'll be going to Kilika on the same ship as Yuna tomorrow, and then heading on to Luca together. Oh, and Tidus is very interested in her." Valefor giggled.

The corner of Kaila's mouth quirked as she rolled her eyes. "Of course he is. She's a girl. It's Yuna's interest in him that concerns us. If she already has enough guardians, she might not see the need for one more."

"Well, Yuna is very focused on her pilgrimage right now, and she's not the type to be distracted easily," Valefor admitted. "But she is interested in talking to him about Zanarkand on the ship tomorrow."

"Did Auron tell them that their fathers followed the same path together?" Kaila asked.

Valefor shrugged in a puzzled manner. "Auron hasn't shown up yet."

Bahamut frowned slightly. "That's strange. They must have become separated somehow. Auron said he would stick with him."

"I have no doubt that Auron will keep his word, but I'll follow them until they reach Kilika to keep you informed," the young girl volunteered with a grin.

))((

Auron woke to the sound of engines running in the distance and opened slitted eyes to see that he was still in the tall grass beyond the dunes on the island where he had taken refuge from Sin. Sighing to himself, he stood and grabbed his coat and sword. Hefting the sword onto his shoulder, he edged toward the dunes to look beyond them to the source of the sound. Al Bhed ... Luck might be with him today. Where there were Al Bhed digging up ancient machina, there would be an Al Bhed salvage ship. The warrior monk decided to take a chance and introduce himself.

The group of Al Bhed workers stopped their digging machina and pointed the noisy, rumbling contraptions toward him as soon as they saw him coming over the dunes.

Auron stopped in his tracks and sheathed his sword in hopes of warding off an attack. "_Rammu! So hysa ec _Auron_. Fuimt dryd creb rybbah du pa kuehk yhofrana hayn _Baaj?"

"Baaj?" They consulted each other for a minute, then one of them called back. "_Fro tu oui haat du ku drana_?"

"_E mucd cusauha drana - dra cuh uv y vneaht uv seha_," he answered when they questioned why he needed a ride there.

One of the Al Bhed workers, a teen dressed from head to toe in goggles and zippered gear to protect her from the sun and dangerous work, spoke to the others briefly and then jogged forward to meet him. "This friend's son that you lost, does he happen to have short blond hair and think he's from Zanarkand?"

Auron adjusted his sunglasses. "That would definitely be him. Is he with you?"

"We picked up someone from Baaj fitting that description just two days ago, but we were attacked by Sin and he washed overboard."

Auron's good eye closed with a grimace as he cursed under his breath. Now he had no idea where to find him. Tidus might already be dead for all he knew.

"We can take you there anyway, if you still want to look for him."

"If it's not too much trouble. _Dryhgc_," he thanked her.

_"_Rikku_! Rinno ib!"_ An Al Bhed worker with a tattooed chest and blond mohawk called to her.

"Just a minute," she spoke politely to Auron, then faced the other Al Bhed. "Keep your pants on! _Fa'na dygehk res pylg du_ Baaj!"

Auron pushed his sunglasses back up on his nose and smirked at the petite girl's commanding shout. Following her back to their ship, he waited by the sidelines while they finished the salvage hunt. Then, he boarded the vessel with them to head back to Baaj.

When they arrived, Auron looked at the rocks and chunks of stone protruding above the water, but the subject of his search was, of course, no longer there. "Tidus!" he bellowed as loudly as he could from the ship as it crept as close as it dared to the submerged hazards. "Tidus!" Only his own voice echoed back to him in the deserted landscape. He turned to the girl named Rikku. "Can you spare a few minutes to let me search inside?"

"Sure! We'll even help so it doesn't take as long." Rikku gestured for the rest of the Al Bhed crew to follow Auron off of the ship into the ruins once more. They all groaned at her act of volunteering them.

After a failed search of the ruins, they all returned to the ship. Auron tried to think of where else Tidus might be, supposing he had survived. The girl had said they were attacked by Sin after taking him on board. Jecht must have come back for him, but whether that was a good or bad thing, he couldn't say. "Could you take me to Besaid, by any chance?"

Rikku winced beneath her goggles and head gear. "_Cunno_. We're heading back to Bikanel. Besaid's a little too far out of the way. No one could swim that far from here anyway, unless maybe he was a blitzball player. Oh, wait! He was a blitzball player, wasn't he?"

_Blitzball ..._ Auron tried to picture his geographical location in his mind. "Could you swing me toward Luca, then?"

"Actually, I offered to take him to Luca before he washed away from us. Maybe he'll find a way there anyhow?"

"If you can just get me to the islands east of here, I can go the rest of the distance myself. If he finds out about Luca's blitzball stadium, he's bound to show up there eventually."

"You got it!" The girl gave him a friendly smile and headed toward the rest of her crew to discuss the side track before going home.

Auron turned his attention to the dolphins following the ship beneath the waves. He hoped he was right, for everyone's sake.

))((

Voices ...

In the depths of the canyon off of Mushroom Rock Road, after going through unknown years of emotional anguish and isolated madness, Shuyin had learned to shroud himself in deep sleep as much as possible to escape his punishing memories, … until a time when he could escape his prison, instead. Now, his awareness slowly awakened at the sound of voices.

Voices outside the cavern were nothing new. Over the years, many people had come and gone, unable to open the impossible lock. They wondered what glorious treasure lay beyond such an ornate door, or they were curious about rumors that an evil spirit was buried there. It came to be known as the Den of Woe, and none dared disturb it. Shuyin was used to hearing the voices leave by now, but this time, there was a grind of movement and a crack of light. Like a vampire trying to avoid the punishing rays of the sun, Shuyin's spirit withdrew to a remote corner and blinked back imagined pain at the brightness piercing his dark tomb.

A small group of Crusaders entered with torches, guns, and a high dose of caution. "Looks okay to me," one of them stated.

"Uh, ... what about that?" Another Crusader pointed to the skeletons that littered the floor. "That doesn't look okay."

"Vikut, they said this was supposed to be an old tomb. What'd ya expect to find in here - a carnival? Stop being such a wuss. All we have to do is clean this up and bury the bones somewhere else. It's the perfect place to store the captured fiends for Operation Mi'ihen." A third member of the Crusaders moved forward to inspect the scattered bone fragments.

The Crusader named Vikut still didn't seem convinced the place was safe. His gaze shifted to the pyreflies that filled the area with a spectral glow. "Well, at least we'll be putting fiends in here rather than people or supplies, right? They'll feel right at home in this creepy place. What if they absorb more pyreflies and get stronger, though? Do you think this is a good idea?"

Shuyin wasn't interested in them and their operation. He wanted out. Rising from the darkness, his spirit shot through the Crusaders and toward the door. Unfortunately, opening the door did not remove the magical wards that sealed the cavern from the inside. Shuyin still could not pass between the glyphs on the walls. After all this time, the door finally opened, yet he remained trapped. _No ... This can't be!_ _There's got to be a way out!_

"Hey! Look!" Vikut pointed at the small cluster of pyreflies hovering near the door, unable to move beyond it. "It's a fiend trying to form! I knew we should never have come in here. The dead deserve to rest. We need to get out of here and lock the door again!"

Shuyin turned at the suggestion and focused on the one who spoke it. That man had walked in, therefore he could also walk out. His physical body was more likely to pass through the spiritual barrier.

The swarm of pyreflies at the door suddenly came straight for Vikut. He cried out and turned to run, but there was no escape from Shuyin's magic.

_"You want to lock me back in, do you? Would you like to be locked away in the dark with this for an eternity?" _The failed guardian unleashed his memories of losing his summoner, facing a monstrous machina, and being shot by a relentless firing squad. _"Would you like to live this moment again and again every day, as I have? No! You're going to get me out of here!"_

"No! Please! Don't kill me!" Vikut became uncontrollably frightened, but he couldn't tell if it was because he was afraid of what he was seeing, or because of the voice within him. Either way, he raised his gun in defense against what he thought he saw.

"Vikut! What's wrong with you, man?" The other Crusaders weren't sure whether to draw near in concern or back away in suspicion. Vikut certainly wasn't acting normal.

Vikut nervously fired multiple times into his stunned companions.

Outside of the cave, a second group of Crusaders who stood idly waiting for the return of the first group heard the shots being fired. "What the ...?" One of them ran into the dark depths of the cavern, just until he could see what had happened. "Vikut? What the hell are you doing?"

More calm, but no longer in control of himself, Vikut aimed the gun without a second's hesitation and fired. A second Crusader came in behind him, and he shot him, as well. Then, he made a break for the door. Before he could reach it, however, a third Crusader stepped into the light of the opening and sent a bullet dead-center through Vikut's chest to stop his killing spree. Shuyin's victim barely had time to recognize he was dying between the time the invading spirit left his body and the time he fell to the floor.

"What's going on in there?" Qwenten, the leader of the small unit that had been assigned to open the tomb and prepare it for use, came to the entrance and readied his flame gun with caution.

Enraged at all these oncoming obstacles, Shuyin's spirit flew toward the marksman that had killed his host.

The marksman saw the unnatural glow speeding toward him and turned to run back out of the doorway. "Retreat! Something's in here!"

"Close the door again! Seal it and guard it!" Qwenten grabbed his fleeing warrior to jerk him clear as they slammed the door shut once more and quickly locked it with an intricate key that not only rolled machina tumblers but infused an exterior ward against magic over the device.

"No!" Shuyin cried out, gathering pyreflies to materialize in his own form. "Let me out! Damn it! Let me out of here! You can't leave me in here again! It's been so long! Please, let me out!" Shuyin dropped to his knees and dug his fingers into the crack at the door's edge. "No, ... This can't be happening!" he whispered to himself as a feeling of panic rose over him, and he leaned his forehead against the surface of the barricade, unable to even feel it. "Next time, I swear I will get out of here no matter what it takes to do it!" He slammed a fist into the rock wall and closed his eyes. "I will get out of here," he told himself in a soft, sinister voice, trying to calm his anxiety and anger. "I will escape. They will open it again because they found the key. And I will be ready next time. I will get out of here, Lenne. I promise!" he hissed with tears of frustration.

))((

The members of the Crusaders on the other side heard his shouted pleas and looked at each other in confusion.

"Someone's in there."

"No one was in there. It's empty."

"But I heard him shouting?"

"No one was in there, I'm telling ya! That wasn't a real person! It's haunted!"

"That's just a rumor, isn't it?"

"Well, something's not right in there, or five of my men wouldn't be dead!" Qwenten snapped. "Whatever's in there is _staying_ in there until we can figure out what's going on. You want it to come after us, too? Stand guard!" he ordered. "I'll be right back."

The unit leader took one last look at the door and ran for the lift, riding it up to the precipice overlooking the sea. There, he entered their commander's tent and found the rotund maester of the D'jose temple of Yevon sitting behind a makeshift table, while he consulted with other church officials. "Maester Kinoc, sir! We've got a big problem with the cavern where we intend to keep the Sin spawn. Something terrible is in there. It's making them kill each other!"

Kinoc looked up from his position, as if slightly annoyed at the interruption. "Who's killing each other, Qwenten?"

The unit leader drew a breath in attempt to calm himself before explaining. "We used the temple's key to unlock the door, like you said. The place looked empty, but when my men entered, they started behaving irrationally. They started shooting each other. I lost five of them in a matter of a just a couple of minutes."

Kinoc was mildly surprised. "The temple of Djose designed that lock and key ages ago when one of our summoners was called on to stop an unsent spirit on a killing spree. The summoner never returned, but an urgent message had come that a special lock should be placed on the tomb to keep anyone from entering it. The task was done, the key came to rest in the hands of the Djose maesters. No one has had any purpose for disturbing the tomb since then - until now. You're telling me that something is still in there?"

"Apparently so - something begging to be let out." Qwenten offered the key back.

The maester shrugged. "Then kill it."

"We can't kill it if we can't see it. That's no ordinary fiend, possessing people like that."

Kinoc sighed as if this was one worry he didn't need. He was thoughtful for a moment and then looked to two of his temple guards standing inside the open flap of his tent. "Have the members of the Crimson Squad arrived yet?"

"Not yet, Boss! Er, ah ... Maester Lord," the short turtle-like one of the pair answered.

"Go check our supplies and make sure we have enough fire power so that they're well equipped when they arrive," Kinoc told them.

"Right away, sir," the tall, thin one of the pair agreed and then led the way out of the tent with the other.

Kinoc looked back to Qwenten. "Take no further action with the cavern just yet. Tell no one of what you've discovered. Let me know when the recruits of the Crimson Squad arrive. We'll send them in to find out what's happening."

"Yes, sir. But … what about the caged fiends? Where do we keep them?"

"Seal off Mushroom Rock Road and have the Chocobo knights stand watch. Just keep the cages along the road there and make sure travelers are not allowed to pass through. It's for their own safety."

"Yes, sir." Qwenten left to pass word of the new command.

))((

Kinoc looked to his advisers that remained. "The Crimson Squad are mostly Al Bhed youngsters wanting to join the Crusaders. I was going to use them to establish a cautionary underpinning - a little something in case Seymour decided to grab too much power too quickly, now that he holds his father's position. But whether they meet their ends keeping him in check, trying to defeat Sin, or investigating a fiend-infested cavern, it still adds up to fewer Al Bhed heretics when this joint operation with them fails." He chuckled lightly and patted his adviser on the back.

))((

Tidus reunited with Auron in Luca after fiends attacked the blitzball stadium after the tournament. Tidus and Yuna had already pieced together the clues about their fathers both knowing the warrior monk. So, after listening to Tidus's short tantrum about the warrior monk being the blame for everything that had happened to him, Auron decided it was time to pull Tidus aside for a private conversation on the docks and tell him the truth about his father.

"It can't be," Tidus responded in soft disbelief.

"It is. Sin is Jecht."

Tidus's disbelief abruptly burst into anger again. "No! That's ridiculous! No way! I don't believe you!" He turned away from him, refusing to accept the distressing news gracefully.

"But it is the truth. You'll see for yourself. Come with me."

Tidus anxiously paced, but still felt just as angry as when he had yelled at him. "If I say no?"

"Every story must have an ending."

"I don't care about your stories!"

"I see. Sorry you feel that way," Auron frowned. "Fine, then. Come or don't come. It's your decision."

Tidus growled in frustration and turned back around to face him. "What am I supposed to say? You tell me it's my decision, but I don't have a choice, do I? I have to go with you! I have to! You're the only one who can tell me what's going on anyway!" Tidus turned his back to him and bent his hands to his knees to steam quietly to himself for a moment.

Auron sympathized and wondered if the Fayth were watching their illusion now that he stood on the threshold of discovering his own truth. "Irritating, I know. Or are you afraid?" The warrior monk walked toward Tidus from behind him and placed a supportive hand on his shoulder. "It's all right."

Tidus considered everything he had been through so far in coming to Spira. This couldn't be coincidence. A fear rose within him that he could not define or rationalize. "Auron? Will I ever go home? Back to Zanarkand?"

"That's up to Jecht." Auron turned to leave, but then stopped and looked over his shoulder to him. "I'm going to offer my services to Yuna. Come."

Tidus asked a few more questions about his dad, but he didn't get many answers. Finally, he sighed in worried resignation and reluctantly followed behind his former guardian. Now he hated his father more than ever.

"Woah," Wakka commented in awe when he saw Auron approaching.

"Sir Auron!" Yuna grinned, happy to see him again.

"Yuna," he greeted her with a nod and a smile.

"Sir?"

"I wish to become your guardian. Do you accept?"

"You're serious?" Lulu asked.

"You refuse?"

"No, no! We accept! Right, everyone?" Yuna looked at her growing number of companions.

"O-of course! No problem at all!" Wakka heartily agreed.

"But ... why?" Lulu asked, suspiciously.

"I promised Braska."

Yuna was mildly surprised to hear of this. "You promised my father? Thank you, Sir Auron. You're welcome to join us!"

"And ..." He grabbed Tidus, who had been sullenly kicking a pebble on the pavement, and jerked him around in front of him. "He comes, too."

Tidus regained his balance and tried to regain his composure. He was still angry at Auron's little information bomb concerning his dad's disappearance, but at least now he understood why he never wanted to talk about him before. "Hi, ... guys. Eh, ... howdy."

"This one I promised Jecht."

"Is Sir Jecht alive?" Yuna was hopeful.

Auron could hardly call those few, brief phantom projections "alive". He could communicate with his friend, but it wasn't the same. Tidus knew the truth now, but no one else needed to just yet. "Can't say. Haven't seen him in ten years."

Yuna was disappointed. "I ... see."

"You'll meet, eventually."

"Yes! I'm looking forward to it."

Tidus drew an apologetic expression and averted his gaze. How would he ever explain this to her - to any of his new friends?

Auron stepped forward to Lulu. "What's our itinerary? Where are we headed?"

"We cross the highroad and Mushroom Rock Road toward Djose, so that Yuna can pray to the Fayth and receive its aeon," Lulu informed him.

Tidus watched the rest of the group head up the steps out of the city of Luca toward he Mi'ihen Highroad. But he reluctantly lingered. He didn't feel much like continuing this journey at the moment.

))((

Unseen to any of them, Ifrit's spirit had followed and leaned against the wall to watch Tidus with thoughtful concern. Yuna had noticed something was bothering him and returned to talk to him, so Ifrit closed his eyes and entered the dream for the next report.

The former guard wished himself to appear where Bahamut or Kaila might be and found them on a new perch, sitting on the water arch above the city looking down on it from a new angle. "Auron has reunited with Tidus and told him about Jecht's identity. He hasn't really explained it more than that because hearing that Jecht is Sin was upsetting. But … Tidus is also upset that he has no choice in being involved in this."

"But ... he does have a choice, " Bahamut stated. "Auron can't make him fight."

"Uh, ... actually Auron has insisted that he come along as one of Yuna's guardians, so it's official now. Yuna wanted him to join them, though. They get along really well." Ifrit paused and smirked. "_Really_ well," he repeated with a light wink.

Kaila's expression flattened. "He's showing off to impress her, isn't he?"

Ifrit chuckled with a big grin. "Just a little."

"That idiot." Bahamut frowned. "He's supposed to be protecting her, not hitting on her."

"Well, nothing's come of it yet, but it's not like she's tied to anyone else," Ifrit countered. "He just doesn't realize that she's not going to be around for very long. But then neither will he, so ..."

Kaila saddened as she thought of her discussion with Tidus the night of the dance. "If anything happens between them, … let it happen," she spoke with a bittersweet smile.

"But … he's not real."

"His feelings are. And so are hers. Let them have their moment in time together. If they find comfort and strength in each other, it will give both of them something worth living for - something they will need in order to see this difficult task through to the end."


	37. Chapter 37: Crossed Paths and Crossroads

Chapter 37: Crossed Paths and Crossroads

"So, uh, ... how do you ride these things?" Tidus squinted at one of three large yellow birds that the group had been offered. They had just killed a chocobo eater outside of Rin's Travel Agency that morning, so chocobo rentals were temporarily free of charge in their honor.

"Don't be chicken, ya? Hehe." Wakka chuckled at his own joke, grabbed the reins of the one closest to him, and lifted himself easily onto the creature's back. "You just pull in the direction you want them to go and pull straight back to stop."

"Don't they fly?" Tidus tilted his head to look under one of the wings.

"No, but they run really, really fast. So make sure you hold on tight."

Tidus eagerly prepared to take one of the free chocobo, but was brusquely pushed aside by Kimahri. "Wha - Hey! What's the big idea? Stop pushing me like that," he complained as the large, blue, lion-faced man mounted the last chocobo instead of allowing the smaller human to do so.

"We should pair up by weight to avoid tiring one of them too soon," Auron suggested as he mounted one of the large, yellow birds. "Our heavy riders need first dibs. Then we can evenly distribute our lighter weights. Kimahri is our heaviest rider, so you can't ride with him."

"Well, who said I wanted to ride with him anyway?" Tidus folded his arms, annoyed that each of their free rides had already been claimed.

"You're light weight, but heavier than Yuna and Lulu so -"

"Excuse me?" Tidus became indignant. "I'm medium weight. And I don't want to be stuck in the back. Can't we each get our own?"

"Not unless you want to pay for it," Wakka told him. "Stop whining like a girl and go rent your own." Chuckling to himself, he reached a hand down to offer Lulu a shared ride, but all he got in return was an unhappy frown. Wakka scratched the back of his head. "Uh, ... I mean, ..."

"Forget it. I wouldn't want you to have to listen to any whining." Lulu gave Wakka an irritated side glance and a cold shoulder as she walked toward Auron and lifted her hand in request to share his chocobo, instead. The warrior monk helped her climb onto the back of the bird behind him, and the mage gracefully shifted into a side-saddle position, smoothing her long, black dress.

Tidus laughed at Wakka getting snubbed, then walked back to the chocobo rental to ask for another.

"Yuna?" The big blitzball player held out a hand to the summoner, mindful to keep his mouth shut this time.

"Ah, ... I …"

"What? Are you mad at me too? I didn't mean it like that. I was just poking fun at him, ya?" Wakka apologized.

"I know. It's just … when I was little, I dropped a ball near a chocobo once. But when I tried to get it back, I got kicked and hit with a fire spell. I'm sorry, but I really don't like them."

"They only cast fire magic when they're scared."

"But they get scared a lot. And they run too fast."

"Maybe just close your eyes when they run," Wakka advised. "That way you don't see nothing."

Having paid a rental fee, Tidus returned with one more chocobo. Stopping the bird beside Auron's, he studied the saddle for a moment and lifted himself onto it. "That was easy." He grinned. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Um, Yuna's afraid to ride," Wakka informed him. "Maybe we should walk," he suggested to the other guardians.

"It will take longer and be more dangerous," Lulu countered. "Yuna, you should ride with Kimahri. You know _he_ won't let anything happen to you."

"What-whaaaat?" Wakka protested. "What's that supposed to mean? I won't let nothing happen to her. But if she doesn't want to ride, we should walk."

Yuna looked aside, ashamed at being the cause of the hold-up.

Tidus tested his chocobo-riding skills by walking it toward her, but the closer the bird got to her, the more she backed away. "Hey, Yuna? That big aeon bird that you summoned ... You weren't afraid of that, weren't you?" He stopped and turned it sideways, away from her.

"No, but ... Valefor does what I ask her to do. And I know she won't step on me."

"Yeah, but you've stood up to some really big fiends so far, and this is just a chocobo. Besides, you shouldn't miss out something fun just because of one bad experience." He leaned low and held out his hand in invitation.

"Don't do it, Yuna," Auron advised. "Ride with Kimahri or Wakka."

Tidus straightened and frowned at him in insult. "Just because I'm new at this doesn't mean I can't handle it."

"Your idea of 'something fun' defies logic sometimes."

"Well, it's not like I'm going to race it or anything, … unless you're challenging me." Tidus leaned forward in his saddle. "Is that a challenge, old man?"

Auron's brows came together in disapproval of that mischievous bait. "I rest my case."

Yuna took a brave step toward the chocobo. "Tidus?"

"Mh?" He turned away from Auron.

The summoner checked her fear with determination. "I don't want everyone to have to walk because of me. I want my journey to be fun. May I … please ride with you?"

Tidus flashed Auron a triumphant told-ya-so expression and a confident, "Hmpf." As Auron shook his head at their folly, Tidus helped her onto the chocobo behind him. "I'll try not to go too fast, okay? But if I do, you just let me know, and I'll slow down."

Yuna's arms encircled his waist beneath his short blitzball uniform shirt. "Okay," she agreed with a nervous nod, but then buried her face in the shirt's hood.

Aware of this strange gesture and amused at it, Tidus looked over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Closing my eyes so I don't see anything."

"But ... that's not any fun."

"I'm fine with it," she assured him with a muffled voice, but kept her face buried.

Auron shook his head once more as he started off down the highroad. Wakka tried not to laugh as he followed. And Kimahri gave Tidus a warning growl and chose to stay directly behind him to keep an eye on Yuna.

The blitzball player gave the ronso a flat expression for his overprotective caution and started forward, keeping the chocobo's walk at an easy pace. When he looked over his shoulder at Yuna again, her face was still buried into the hood of his uniform. This would never do. Stopping the chocobo, he lifted her arms away from his waist and dismounted.

"Oh no! What are you doing?" Yuna didn't like being left alone on the jumpy creature. She started to reach for him.

"Just trading places," he assured her.

"But I can't … There's nothing to hold onto." Yuna dug her fingers into the thick yellow plumes of the bird's neck and shoulders and squeezed her knees against the bird's shoulders. Side-saddle would have been more graceful, she was sure, but she was more interested in not being thrown off. Fortunately, her kimono had enough of a slit in each side to allow her to sit more securely; but no matter how she sat on the bird, she would not have _felt_ secure.

Tidus grinned and got back on the chocobo behind her. "Then hold onto me." Reaching under her arms, he grabbed the reins. After adjusting his position for a second, he tapped his heels into the bird's ribs. The chocobo folded its wings against their legs as if helping to hold its riders in place while it moved forward again. They were quite a distance behind the others now, and it was tempting to jolt forward and catch up to them, but Tidus continued to walk the bird at a slow, steady pace under Kimahri's watchful eyes. After a few minutes, he leaned near to her cheek. "Is this okay?"

With a nervous nod, she released the fistfuls of soft feathers and latched into his arms instead. "I'm okay now."

Tidus took that as an increase in her level of confidence and tapped his heels into the bird's ribcage again, increasing their pace to a trot. After a few more minutes, he leaned forward to check her expression again. She still didn't look very relaxed about it, so he decided to try to distract her. "So, ... why do they call it Mushroom Rock Road?"

"The rocks have round tops that make them look like mushrooms. On maps, they're drawn like large clusters of mushrooms, sometimes." She turned her chin slightly to try to see his face though he was so near. "I thought you didn't want to sit in the back."

"It's okay. I'll switch places with you again on the way back." He shrugged. "Having fun yet?"

The summoner blinked at him in surprised dismay. "Yes," she answered with a somewhat sad smile. "Yes, I am."

"Good. Then we can catch up to them now!" Folding one arm across her waist to be sure she didn't fall, he urged the chocobo to break into a run.

Yuna cried out and held on more tightly at the unexpected burst of speed. She shut her eyes tightly, as well. But, after a moment, she opened her eyes and laughed at the bumpy, jostling ride instead.

Tidus grinned at his sneaky achievement. A genuine laugh - that was what he wanted to see again - not that polite smile that she wore to cover her true feelings. Kimahri growled and stayed right on their chocobo's hind quarters. As Tidus passed Wakka and Auron's trotting fowls, he stuck his tongue out at them in short comic fashion and continued running down the road ahead of them. "Woo hoo! See ya!"

"Ah ... Ah!" Wakka was nearly rendered speechless. Kicking his chocobo into high gear, he ran after Tidus and Kimahri and shook his fist at them. "What are you doing racing with Yuna like that, you bonehead!"

Auron brought his chocobo to a halt and sighed. Then, he glanced over his shoulder to Lulu and his brows rose behind his sunglasses.

The crimson-eyed black mage frowned at him. "Don't even think about it."

))((

Shuyin heard voices again. The door into his dark domain was unlocked and pushed open once more, but this time he was surprised to see lots of people enter the cavern. They were armed and cautious. They were hunting something - hunting him. But Shuyin had finally learned the value of patience over the course of his very long, very unnatural life. So as they continued to come all the way inside to seek him out, he watched them carefully, listened to their conversations, and tried to determine which among his prey would make a suitable host. It would not be the one that showed the most fear this time - perhaps the most fearless, instead. The last to enter was a man with a body that was half-machina. Shuyin still recalled the machina soldiers he had to fight - their tireless, impenetrable bodies had been difficult to defeat. That was the kind of body he needed to get beyond that door.

Shuyin did not cast his magic this time, but his memories and feelings were already so thickly absorbed by the pyreflies in the cavern that they almost took on a life of their own. As the members of the invading army walked through the ethereal, glowing mist, they began to see Vegnagun and the scattered events that led to his death. All of them felt his despair. Within a matter of minutes, they began turning their weapons on each other. The trio of young men at the back were horrified to see the massacre going on in front of them. They expressed wanting no part in a squad that killed its own members, and they turned to leave. Shuyin wasn't going to let that happen - not without him.

His spirit flew into the man with the half-machina body, but this time he didn't attempt a violent take over. He reminded himself to be patient and searched for information, instead. His new host was a young man named Nooj - a recruit for this new elite fighting force, the Crimson Squad. Apparently, they'd been told this was part of a training exercise, but Shuyin was certain that was a lie. This cavern had never been used for routine training exercises before, or he would have been gone long before now. These people had most likely been sent down here to die. But why? He was intrigued.

As the pyrefly memories within the cavern infected his mind, Nooj pointed his gun at his friend and cried out in anguish - they all did, until they stood in a triangle of death, each one ready to end the life of another.

Shuyin tried to calm him by speaking into his mind. _"Put the gun down, Nooj."_ He watched as a female recorder circled them wondering what to do. She yelled at them to stop. _"Listen to her, Nooj. Put the gun down. We're going to walk out of here nice and calm."_

The young woman's voice broke through the illusion Nooj was seeing. He and his friends snapped out of their trances and ran out through the door, passing right between the spiritual wards on either wall, without any incident. Shuyin held his breath until Nooj was completely outside of the den. After endless ages, ... he was on the other side! If he was alone, he would have bent to kiss the ground outside of that cursed door, but under the circumstances, he chose to remain quietly hidden, letting Nooj speak and act for himself.

While the trio reported their findings about the massacre and the large growling machina they had seen, Shuyin looked at the world through Nooj's eyes for the first time since his imprisonment. Its brightness and beauty were almost painful, even down in this empty rock canyon. And the men in charge of this covert operation? Their uniforms were almost too familiar - Bevelle warrior monks similar to the ones that had executed him and Lenne, and a priest that wore robes with none other than Yevon's signature trademark. Yevon _still_ existed? Or was he merely a legend now? Bahamut had said it was almost a thousand years since he'd been locked away in that cavern. Shuyin wondered how much time had passed since that visit.

The priest didn't appear happy with the report these three made about what that they saw in there, but he congratulated them anyway. He told them to forget about what they saw and gave them their first assignment - protect the maester. Then, he whispered something to the warrior monks behind him.

While Nooj and his friends congratulated each other on passing their final test, Shuyin searched the young man's mind for more information about who this maester was and what was happening for them to even be at this remote location.

"Run!" the female recorder suddenly yelled. "Run!"

Her shout startled Shuyin, but the shots fired at his host's back startled him even more. Why were warrior monks shooting their own recruits? Shuyin considered jumping from his host and fleeing to safety on his own, but this body was a half-machina. His chances of finding another one like it were rare. So, he seeped deeper into Nooj's mind while his defenses were down and encouraged his new host to run as fast as he could across the bottom of the canyon.

))((

"Should we go after them, sir?" one of the gunners asked.

"No." Behind the escaping witnesses, the priest in charge of overseeing the Crimson Squad 's final training exercise peered into the gloomy cavern and saw all the dead bodies. "It would raise too many questions to be seen hunting down deserters while Operation Mi'ihen is going on. We'll find them later." It wasn't the loss of the entire Crimson Squad that bothered him, though. It was the description of the apparition and giant machina that they said they had seen within. It made no sense, but he wasn't about to go in there and find out for himself what was going on. "There's enough pyreflies in there now to breed an entire dungeon full of fiends. I need to report to Maester Kinoc. Meanwhile, send someone in there to take a body count and see if there are any other survivors," he ordered his warrior monks. The priest scowled at the female recorder that had given the three survivors warning in time for them to escape. Then, he headed back to the command center.

))((

Qwenten was the only one from his own Crusader unit down there this time, and now he was left alone with the Crimson Squad's recorder, a young woman named Paine.

"Something about this whole thing," she spoke nervously as soon as the priest were gone. "It doesn't seem right. He was going to shoot them in the back!" she complained to him.

It bothered him, too, but he tried to remain rational about it. "Because they were shooting each other in there. You saw what happened."

"I saw my friends lose their minds in there, only to come out here and get promoted to an execution! What's in there that they weren't supposed to see?"

"I don't know, okay? I'm just trying to follow orders because we've got more important things to worry about with Sin out there!" Qwenten noticed the recorder's supply bag. "Those training spheres ... They're evidence. The maester's probably going to want to see them."

"Fine." Paine dropped her supply bag at the Crusader's feet, but shouldered the strap of her recorder across her back. "Take your precious spheres. I'm more concerned about the people in them." She flashed him an angry glare and ran away to look for her friends.

))((

A few minutes later, the priest returned with Maester Kinoc and was upset to learn that now the recorder had run away, too. Kinoc, the head of both the Crusaders and warrior monks branch of the temple, boldly entered the cavern to see the dead bodies littering the floor beneath the cloud of pyreflies. Two minor ranking warrior monks who were supposed to be taking a death count were bantering about bodies being missing among the enlistees. "Four still live," Kinoc told them, interrupting their stupid argument. "Fix it!" He heard the fat one mutter something beneath his breath in response. "Did you say something?" he challenged them.

"No, Sir," the tall thin one replied. "Uh, pay him no mind."

Kinoc left the cavern with the priest and lowered his voice. "Are you sure it sounded like Vegnagun they were describing?"

"Positive. Although how they knew about it is beyond me," the priest answered. "They suggested it was the pyreflies."

Kinoc and the priest stopped in front of Qwenten. "Seal it again," Kinoc ordered. "And this time change the lock. Make it even harder to open than before. Break the key in pieces and cast them to the wind if you have to. I don't care how you do it, just make sure that no one ever goes in there again. I will be on the precipice awaiting Maester Seymour's arrival, if you have further questions about your orders.

"Yes, sir." Qwenten wasn't sure what to think of Kinoc's attack on the only survivors of the covert operation. "Sir, forgive me for questioning your orders, but ... why are they a threat? They passed the trial, and we need all the able bodies we can get to fight Sin."

"They might be infected with whatever caused that madness in there. We don't want it - or word of it - getting out, do we?" Kinoc curtly answered and headed back to the lift.

The priest who advised the maester on matters concerning the Crimson Squad cut a glance of warning toward the unit leader of the Crusaders who had first discovered the threat, but then walked away.

Qwenten had guessed as much, but as he looked down at the spheres Paine had dumped at his feet, he couldn't help but sympathize with her confusion. An idea came to him about what kind of new lock the door needed - a lock that would remember the tragedy that happened here this day and warn others, so that it could never happen again.

))((

Yuna's party arrived at the gate of the ruins that separated the Mi'ihen Highroad from Mushroom Rock Road, and Tidus reluctantly hopped down from his chocobo. "Now, wasn't that fun?" he spoke as he helped her off of the bird as well.

She laughed and combed her fingers through her wind-blown hair, hoping it didn't look as stringy as it felt now. "Oh, much more fun than I imagined."

Tidus grinned, pleased, but when he left her side to join the other guardians in returning the chocobos back to the rental attendant, Lulu drew near with a skeptical expression. "He was reckless to race with you like that."

"But it was really fun." Yuna smiled with a light laugh. "I've been avoiding chocobos since I was six, but considering that I intend to fight Sin, I guess it is kind of silly to be afraid of something so small by comparison."

"If his recklessness had harmed you, where would your pilgrimage be?" Lulu placed one hand on Yuna's shoulder to hold her still while he used her other hand to fix her hair. The black mage had doted on the summoner as if she were a younger sister since they were children. "None of us want to lose you, but to lose you to something trivial would be especially bad, considering the reason for your journey."

"Being in his arms like that ... It was nice," Yuna confessed with a hint of embarrassment. "And he honestly doesn't understand the outcome of the Final Summoning yet. He's already planning to share another ride with me on a return trip. That's … refreshing."

"I saw how you smiled being with him." Lulu softened her tone. "But you know that you can't be with him like that, Yuna."

The summoner's chin dipped at the slight reprimand. "I know." She looked up at her friend with a sad expression and then covered it with a small smile. "But I can dream, can't I?" Her gaze went beyond Lulu's shoulder, to see Tidus was returning with other guardians.

Lulu heard voices a short distance away and looked up to see familiar faces at the gate. "Is that Dona and Barthello?"

The other summoner and her guardian were arguing with a Crusader about not being allowed to enter the gate to Mushroom Rock Road.

"If they aren't letting them pass, they probably won't let us pass either," Yuna guessed.

"Let me talk to them," Tidus offered and strode behind a large wagon carrying a fiend that was also stopped at the gate.

Yuna watched as Luzzu and Gatta, two Crusaders from Besaid, and their wagon were permitted entry by the guards, but when Tidus tried to follow, the gate guards stopped him. He had an animated conversation with them for a moment, then returned to her side to repeat what he had learned.

The gate guard said the road was blocked for Operation Mi'ihen - an unprecedented joint venture between the Crusaders and the Al Bhed. The Crusaders were going to use fiends to lure Sin to attack, and then the Al Bhed were going to attack using their most powerful machina weapons - forbidden machina weapons.

"Looks like we'll need to find another way around," Yuna decided.

"Shouldn't we wait?" Tidus suggested. "If the road has been trapped with machina and fiends, it sounds pretty dangerous. And if they can defeat Sin, we won't have to."

Yuna was undecided. "They could probably use our help."

"Help them?" Wakka didn't like the sound of that. "But they're using machina. It's sacrilegious!"

"Then we find another way around," Lulu agreed with Yuna. "There's probably a connection between the low road and the beach near the ruins if we go back down the road a bit."

Yuna turned to lead her guardians back down the Miihen High Road, when Maester Seymour and his travel entourage could be seen heading toward them. As she knelt and bowed in formal greeting to the leader of her order, the half-guado summoner, with long, blue hair and long, exotic robes, acknowledged her gesture with one of his own.

"So, we meet again, Lady Yuna."

"Y-yes?"

"You look troubled. Is there anything I can do?"

"Well, ..." She looked toward the barricaded gate.

"I see." Seymour went to the gate guard and gave him the same formal bow in greeting. Then, he requested that Yuna's party be allowed to pass through behind him. There was only a small protest from the guard before he returned to his post and gestured for them to proceed.

Seymour turned to face the waiting party – Yuna in particular. "It is done."

"Oh! Thank you, Your Grace!" She bowed in awed gratitude and stayed bowed until Seymour and his party left.

"Yuna, it's time to go," Lulu prompted her summoner to resume their journey.

"Oh. Right." As Yuna continued through the gate with Lulu, however, she could hear her two other guardians behind them.

"Who does he think he is?" Tidus complained, sounding unimpressed.

"He's a maester. Better get used to it, ya?" Wakka was amused at the irritation written all over Tidus's face.

))((

After running for some distance across the smooth-surfaced stone that made up the criss-crossing paths through the canyon, Nooj's foot slipped on one of the raised surfaces and he stumbled to his knees.

_"Keep running."_

"I can't!" Nooj thought the voice that whispered in his mind was a side-effect left from whatever had happened to them in the cavern.

_"You must!"_

Nooj lowered his head between his arms while he tried to catch his breath. His machina leg simply was not good enough for this kind of thing. He hated it - hated himself. He wished he had stayed in the cavern to let his life end.

_"Keep running!"_ Shuyin forced the man to get back to his feet. He had to try to keep his host alive this time.

"Nooj!" One of his companions realized he had fallen behind and returned to help him stand.

"Leave me," Nooj answered in irritation, as he pushed his small, wire-rimmed spectacles back up to the bridge of his nose. He stood and took cover behind a large rock formation, and his friends followed.

"Are you crazy? We've got guns on our backs, and we need to get out of here!" his younger companion fussed at him and moved behind him to push him forward again, but Nooj wouldn't budge.

"Wait!" Their other companion uttered a breathless protest. "We can't leave yet."

"Baralai! Yes we can!" the one behind Nooj snapped in disagreement. "They tried to kill us!"

"Sin is going to be coming up that coast any minute now," Baralai argued. "We came to fight Sin! If we run to save our own hides, when we could have made a difference ..." The white-haired young man pleaded with his friends to remember why they joined this cause in the first place. "If this operation doesn't succeed, then we will be at the mercy of Sin no matter where we run."

_Sin ... _Who was Sin? Shuyin frantically searched for more information, and he couldn't believe what he was finding by sifting through Nooj's mind. Operation Mi'ihen was apparently the latest offensive against a giant, destructive aeon named Sin that had been terrorizing Spira since this young man was born. Though only in his late teens, Nooj had lost his limbs in a previous run-in against the titanic beast, and had been refitted with the new ones by Al Bhed machinists. He loathed his new body, though, and had joined this effort, in part, to avenge what it had done to him. The Crimson Squad had been his best hope to do that, but they had just been wiped out by the madness preserved in the Den of Woe's pyreflies. And now these three sole survivors had been shot at by their own commander - a priest of Yevon. It reminded Shuyin of how Maester Renuta betrayed Lenne. It looked too much like another cleansing. But this Sin ... Was it the same monster Bahamut mentioned when he came to ask for his help? Was it the same titanic aeon he had collided with above Bevelle – an aeon that could only have been summoned by Yu Yevon? _That bastard ..._

Shuyin grew more angry as he remembered his argument with Yevon about sending Lenne and the other summoners into battle against Bevelle. As he continued to search his host's mind, he found no trace of anything about the Founders in Nooj's memories, but Yu Yevon's teachings had somehow become immortal. Now all of Spira worshiped him as a god, yet no knowledge of the high summoner himself as a man was present among those thoughts. An entire church and legal system had been built around this massive aeon and those precepts. Yevon had gained immortality and the entire world order of power.

"Look! Maester Seymour is here!" Baralai pointed to the blue-haired summoner and the large group that followed him toward the lift. "We should tell him what happened. He might be able to help us."

Shuyin looked up to see who Maester Seymour was, but was surprised when he also spotted ... _himself_! He removed and wiped the lenses of Nooj's glasses before replacing them for another look, but there was no mistaking it. In the group walking behind Seymour, someone was wearing an Abes uniform, and he looked just like Shuyin. _What the …?_

As one of the mushroom-shaped rocks lifted Seymour's group up to the precipice, Shuyin started to make Nooj agree with Baralai about asking the half-guado maester for help in spite of the bounty on their heads, mainly because of his curiosity about this clone wearing his blitzball uniform. But his younger companion, the one Nooj knew as Gippal, cut in front of them.

"What if he knows about what happened?" Gippal challenged. "What if _all_ of them know what happened? What if this whole operation is just a scam to kill off as many Al Bhed as possible?"

Distracted from his double, Shuyin was glad to hear he wasn't the only one suspecting a temple cleansing.

"What are you talking about?" Baralai argued. "I'm not Al Bhed. Nooj isn't Al Bhed."

"The Crimson Squad was full of Al Bhed and Al Bhed sympathizers," Gippal insisted.

"I'm from Bevelle."

"It doesn't matter. You were willing to turn away from Yevon and use machina. All the people who volunteered for this mission are willing to use machina in spite of the fact that the church denounced it. They're corralling us to weed out heretics, I tell ya! That's probably why that priest tried to finish us off!"

"Maester Kinoc and the Crusaders wouldn't be part of the mission, if the temple was against it," Baralai argued again. "Now Maester Seymour is here, too."

"And you don't find that just a little odd?" Gippal countered.

"You're just being paranoid!"

"It's a trap!"

Though he was interested in learning more from their argument, Shuyin turned Nooj's head to look toward the lift. His "twin" was already gone from sight, but the female recorder that had warned them about the execution squad was now running toward the lift. While he was grateful to the woman he never met for sparing the life of his host, he realized she could be reporting their escape to someone else. He didn't know these people, so he didn't know who to trust anymore. And apparently they didn't even trust each other now. A priest of Yevon had betrayed him once before. He wasn't going to let it happen again. Chasing after his doppelganger or seeking aid from anyone associated with Yevon was probably not a safe idea at the moment. Shuyin reminded himself that he had all the time in the world to find answers to those questions, but right now, he had to keep this prized machina body alive. "Gippal's right. This is too suspicious," he spoke using Nooj's voice instead of his own. "We need to get out of here, while we still can." He made Nooj break past his friends and run toward the mouth of the cavern to escape.

))((

Paine had seen Seymour's arrival and figured her three friends might have gone to him for help. She was running between the tents searching for him, when she spotted Maester Kinoc speaking with Sir Auron. Stopping abruptly, she drew back behind a tent to hide from Kinoc, since she had been present when he gave the command for the enlistees to enter the cavern. Her eyes darted around the grounds looking for Seymour once again. But before she got the chance to find him, the ground began to shake.

Gripping the the tent's post, she looked toward the cliff. One of the Sin spawn cages came to life with electrical magic and the fiend was suddenly released. Shortly after that, another larger fiend appeared, and the people gathered there were caught having to defend themselves against it. That could mean only one thing. Sin had arrived.

))((

When they finished killing the escaped Sin spawn, Yuna and her guardians watched from the edge of the cliff as a dark shadow crept under the ocean toward the beach. The Al Bhed fired their canons into the massive aeon that rose from the waves. Their shots did nothing, but Sin spawned more fiends after each hit. Chocobo knights charged the shores along with an onslaught of foot soldiers armed with more forbidden machina. Sin raised a field of magic around itself. The bubble not only completely resisted the powerful electrical jolt aimed at it, but it burst outward, instantly disintegrating everything in its path. Suddenly, Tidus growled and ran back toward the lift.

"No! Don't go down there alone!" Yuna started to reach for him, but Auron blocked her and pulled her back.

"Yuna! You must say here!" The warrior monk held the summoner firmly in place. He knew what was eating at Tidus's mind, and that he needed to vent it alone. He just hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid in the process.

))((

Below the precipice, racing along the shaking ground and trying to escape the area as fast as they could, Nooj and his friends ran out of the canyon and back toward the high road. Seconds later, Tidus came out of the canyon and turned in the opposite direction heading for the beach.

As if tired of playing at war with puny mortals, Sin suddenly fired back at the Al Bhed laser gun. The entire contraption exploded and fell into the sea.

The blast from Sin's punishing attack threw Tidus face-down in the sand on the beach. When he lifted his head in the aftermath, he saw that the beach was littered with broken and dying bodies of the men and women who had tried to stand against Sin. Scrambling to his feet, he spotted Gatta and ran toward him, but trying to converse with him only resulted in a brief hysterical exchange. Tidus's attention went back to the ocean where Sin was swimming away. For Jecht to leave so calmly like that, after shedding so much blood, it made Tidus's anger toward his father burn even stronger. "Don't you run away from me!" he shouted and ran into the waves after the beast.

Diving under the foaming wake, he swam as hard as he could to catch up with the whale-like creature. But even as he chased him through the underwater ruins, he realized how futile his efforts were against such magical and physical strength.

))((

The blast that had thrown Tidus face-down on the beach also threw Shuyin face-down in the dirt on the road. Gippal and Baralai waited to see if Nooj was okay, then all three of them ran through the high road's abandoned barricades. The skittish chocobos had flown the coop on their attendants, and this section of the road was now in just as much chaos as the road behind them. Shuyin concentrated on just keeping up with Nooj's companions as they fled to safety somewhere else.

))((

Still in the canyon, Paine cried out and braced herself against one of the cliffs to protect herself from falling rocks that were showering dust and chunks of debris down around her. When the rumbling of Sin's attack ceased, she spotted Seymour in the small crowd gathered on the precipice, but her friends weren't among them. Running back toward the lift and returning to the mouth of the canyon, Paine was undecided whether to head toward the beach or the high road.

She finally found her friends far down the high road, outside of Rin's Travel Agency. All three of them were exhausted, but none had been injured. When they asked why she had followed, she told them she wanted to know what they saw in the cavern. They didn't know. Maybe someday they would figure out what happened with the Crimson Squad's betrayal, but not today. What they did know was that Maester Kinoc probably wouldn't be happy to know they were still alive.

"Moving as a group is too risky," Nooj stated.

"Wanna split up?" Gippal suggested.

"That would be wise," Baralai agreed.

Nooj turned to Paine. "Your work's done. Why are you still recording?" He reached to her recorder, gesturing for her to turn it off.

))((

Shuyin had let Nooj answer for himself in their conversations, carefully attending each word and facial expression, but in the end, he decided that he could risk no more betrayals. As Nooj and his friends parted ways, Shuyin scanned the area for witnesses, then pulled his gun and fired at their backs.

Paine had been trying to get one final recording of their journey together, but she gasped in shock and bewilderment as Baralai and Gippal unexpectedly fell. "Who?" She panned toward her left to see the shooter. "Nooj!"

"I said your work's done," Shuyin told her in his own voice, as he turned the gun on her, too. The recorder fell as easily as the other two. Calmly walking past the bodies, he was impressed that she didn't even cry. Then, he jogged away, alone. Shuyin was finally free.


	38. Chapter 38: Yuna's Final Aeon

Chapter 38: Yuna's Final Aeon

Operation Mi'ihen ... It was a disaster that left Tidus at a loss for words. To see first-hand how much destruction Sin was capable of doing ... First Kilika, and now this ... How much more could Spira take?

_"Don't you run away from me!"_ he had angrily shouted at his father before racing into the water and trying to swim after him. The ruins lying on the bottom of the ocean floor were a testament to another city long ago destroyed by Sin. Anger boiled through Tidus's blood as resentment from his childhood surged through him and consumed him. His body began to change with his darkening mood, becoming long and serpentine. He flicked a thick, scaled tail and raced to catch up to the aeon. The blue spines on his back and the fins at his ribs helped him cut through the water with the speed of a torpedo. He raked black talons across Sin's hard shell making it spin back toward him. Then, his long, golden-scaled body coiled around it to choke the life from it. Sin cast a spell that burned against his white underbelly, but he refused to let go, constricting even tighter. Sin released another spell, and this time Tidus saw himself dissolving away into nothing. _No ... _He couldn't lose to him - not after everything he'd done to him as a kid - not after everything he'd done to Spira. _No!_

"No!" Tidus sat up in a cold sweat and looked around him. He wasn't underwater at all. He was sleeping on the sofa in one of the Djose temple's guest rooms, but his heart thudded mercilessly against his lungs for a minute as he tried to calm himself and bring his senses back to reality.

Everyone else from his party sat up from their chosen places to crash for the night and squinted at him with sleepy, annoyed faces.

Tidus groaned at the nightmare and let his head drop into his hands. It was the first time he had dreamed about that since leaving Zanarkand, but this time it was different - more vivid, more detailed, more real. What were these dreams? Did they mean something more than just a visual confirmation of his feelings about his father? He thought of the Crusaders that were hit by Sin's magic and touched a hand to his chest to make sure he was solidly there. Then, he growled to himself at his own frustration and hit the sofa.

"Man, this floor was just beginning to feel comfortable, too." Wakka complained and shoved Tidus's leg out of his way to roll back over. "What'd you have to go and yell like that for, ya?"

Auron had been sitting against the wall beneath a multi-colored window that looked more gray than colored in the dim light of night. He lifted his chin and stared at his former ward, suspecting he knew what was bothering him. "The dream again?"

"Yeah," Tidus reluctantly admitted. "Sin was in it this time. Sin is what I was chasing."

The room was silent while everyone considered their own nightmarish experiences with Sin, both today and in the past. "Sin leaves scars on the mind," Lulu spoke from her place on the bed across from the sofa. "We all have them."

The door to the room opened and Yuna poked her head through. "Is everything okay in here? I was tending to the injured in the hall, and I heard someone yell."

"Just a bad dream." Tidus shook his head. "Sorry for waking everyone up."

Yuna tip-toed into the room and crouched beside him at his knee. "I can give you some tea with dream powder in it, if you're having trouble sleeping."

"Or I could always hit him up-aside the head with my blitzball," Wakka muttered from the floor. "That'll knock him out."

Tidus frowned and used the one foot he had draped over the side of the sofa to give his friend's back a kick.

Yuna laughed lightly behind her hand at his payback for the comment and his rumpled appearance. "Well, if you need anything to help you sleep, let me know. I'm going into the temple's great hall next to see if they still need help in there."

"You're still working? Aren't you tired?"

"Yes, but ... there's so many wounded. The temple is completely out of space for them, and some of them won't survive until morning if I can't heal them tonight."

"But if you don't get your rest, then you'll run out of energy to cast your cure spells."

"I know, but I can't rest until I've done everything I could. So many were lost today."

Tidus was concerned for her because Yuna wasn't the type to complain about her own needs. "Well, ... when you come back, wake me up again, and I'll let you have the sofa."

"I'll probably just sleep over there. You can come get me when everyone else is awake tomorrow morning." She tilted her chin slightly and smiled up at him before straightening back to her full height. "No more bad dreams, okay?"

"No more bad dreams," he accepted the healer's orders. "I'll dream of you instead, okay?" he added with a cheesy grin.

Yuna blushed and smiled, putting a hand to her warm cheek.

Auron shook his head.

"Oh, for the love of ..." Wakka muttered under his breath.

"Tidus, lie down. Shut up. Go to sleep," Kimahri's low voice rumbled in warning from his place on the floor on the other side of Wakka.

"Sweet dreams," Yuna told everyone as she slipped back through the door, closing it behind her.

In the darkness, Tidus lay back down on the sofa, propping his hands behind his head. He closed his eyes and pushed aside all thoughts concerning Sin and sea dragons. Instead, he thought about the stars in the sky, ... and Yuna.

))((

Kaila gasped dramatically in disbelief. "Yuna got _married_? But -?"

"To Anima's son, Seymour," Bahamut told her.

The female Fayth became incensed. "How could she marry someone like Seymour when she's got someone like Tidus right under her nose? Is she blind? I practically gift-wrapped him and handed him to her on a silver -"

"Yuna married Seymour for a chance to send him," he explained. "They killed him in Macalania Temple because he murdered his father and then threatened them. I guess Shiva and I forgot to tell you. They're fugitives from Yevon now."

"Fugitives?" Kaila quieted with worry. "I hate that my spirit isn't strong enough to wander far like yours. I wish I could see them. She can't forsake him for anyone else. We worked too hard on him. He's perfect!"

"What's perfect for you might not be perfect for Yuna. However, she doesn't seem to be complaining too much." Bahamut smirked and cast a spell over the water below the houseboat, drawing the pyreflies of the dream together to form an illusion of Tidus and Yuna speaking in a small spring in the woods.

Kaila ran to the edge of the boat and leaned over the rail to watch in wide-eyed wonder. Then, she looked over her shoulder to Bahamut. "How did you -"

"They're camping under cover in Macalania Woods right now, but earlier tonight, they were swimming in this spring. Its water is filled with pyreflies, so I was easily able to preserve the memory of what happened to summon it here."

Kaila looked back down at the vision on the water's surface.

_Yuna allowed herself to drift on the water's surface, floating free. "What'll I do if I give up my pilgrimage?"_

_"Hey! Zanarkand! Let's go to Zanarkand! Not the one in Spira; the one I'm from. Yeah, we can all fly there. Everyone can go! Then, we'll have a big party at my place!"_

_Yuna stood upright in the water, sharing his enthusiasm. "And then we could see blitzball!"_

_"Yeah!"_

_"Your Zanarkand Abes would play. We could all watch you play, in the stadium all lit up at night. I'd cheer and cheer 'till I couldn't cheer anymore!" She grinned as her hands hit the water._

_"Right on!" he agreed, glad to see her cheering up again._

_Yuna paused. "Well, ... what about after the game?"_

_"We'd go out and have fun."_

_"In the middle of the night?" She blinked as if this was unheard of._

_"No problem!" He laughed lightly at her reaction to that idea. "Zanarkand never sleeps!" Tidus lifted his chin to the sky and looked at the pyreflies and stars that sparkled overhead. "Let's go to the sea, before sunrise. The city lights go out one by one. The stars fade." He lost himself for a moment in his memories of his home, and spread his arms over the water. "Then the horizon glows, almost like it's on fire. It's kinda rose-colored, right? First in the sea, then it spreads to the sky, then to the whole city. It gets brighter and brighter until everything glows." He paused, able to see it in his mind - or at least the way it looked before it had been destroyed by Sin. "It's really ... pretty. I know you'd like it."_

_"Mh." She sighed slightly and saddened again. "I'd like to see it, ... someday."_

_He looked away from the stars to turn and face her. "Well, you can, Yuna. We can both go!" Though her back was to him once more, he saw a tear drop touch the water and ripple away from her toward him. "Yu ..."_

_"I can't." She began to cry. "I just can't!" Tears trickled down her face, one after another now. "I can't go!" Yuna's shoulders shook with soft sobs._

_Tidus looked lost for a moment about what else to say, as if wondering whether he should offer to comfort her with a hug, or if that would be too bold. Moving closer to her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Yuna, ..."_

_She looked up to meet his eyes and tried not to cry anymore, but the tears wouldn't stop._

_Only a breath away, Tidus changed his mind about giving her a hug. Instead, he kissed her. Yuna was wide-eyed in surprise for a moment, but he didn't notice. She didn't resist, so he drew his arm further across her shoulders, pulling her closer still, deepening the kiss that followed the first one. _

"Ahhh! What is he doing?" Kaila fussed as she grasped the boat rail. "She's married now! He said he'd never do anything like that, but he's got just enough Shuyin left in him to kiss someone who's already taken."

Bahamut giggled at her humorous reaction. "Well, technically, she's already a widow because she married a dead guy. But that's not the best part. Listen to this." Bahamut stilled that illusion and brought up another of them sitting on the shores of that same spring.

_"I'll continue," Yuna said as she watched the pyreflies. "I must."_

_"Hm," he commented to himself._

_"If I give up now, I could do anything I wanted to, and yet ... even if I was with you, I could never forget."_

_Tidus paused for a minute to think about what that meant for the journey ahead. His expression said that even though he didn't want her to do this, he couldn't let her do it alone. "I'll go with you."_

_She turned to him, surprised. "Hm?"_

_"I'm your guardian," he dogmatically reminded her. "Unless I'm ... fired?" He motioned a cut across his throat._

_Yuna giggled at his delayed doubt about whether a guardian kissing his summoner was permissible. "Stay with me until the end. Please." She bowed politely with her request for him to continue being her guardian._

_Tidus turned his gaze back to the water in front of them. "Not until the end. ... Always." He turned his chin to give her a wry smile._

_"Always then." She bowed in polite gratitude. After a moment, Yuna stood, so he stood with her. "Maybe you should head back to camp first."_

_"Roger!" He stared into her eyes for a moment, but then smiled and turned to walk away. He went slowly, looking up at the floating pyreflies below the stars. He seemed slightly disappointed that she had dismissed him, so when a small whistle pierced the silence of the night, he immediately ran the short distance back to her._

_Yuna giggled at his quick response. "Wait. I'll go with you."_

_He nodded, glad that she had changed her mind about walking with him, but she still remained a few shy paces behind, rather than beside, him. Tidus purposefully slowed his stroll and cast a small glance over his shoulder, casually stretching his hand behind himself toward her, ... just a little._

_Yuna saw the gesture and quickened her pace a few steps to catch up, … just a little. Hesitantly, the shy summoner reached for his hand._

_Tidus smiled to himself as his fingers interlocked hers securely between his own. Now they could walk at a normal pace back to camp._

The illusion faded after that.

Kaila dropped her chin onto her fist as she propped her arm on the rail and gave a contented sigh. A smile gradually curled her lips as she remembered that kiss. "See? I told you. He's perfect for her."

"And this means that if Yuna makes it to the Final Summoning, Tidus will volunteer to be the Fayth for her Final Aeon, in order to protect her." Bahamut smiled with hope. "If he can defeat Yevon before the attempt to possess and merge with him, ... maybe she won't have to die."

Her smile faded slightly, and she gave a sad nod of agreement. The illusions' sacrifice was what this entire experiment was about, after all, right? But with the end of Yuna's pilgrimage drawing closer, Kaila couldn't help but feel uneasy with their plan, in spite of the fact that it was going better than they expected.

))((

Tidus's first look at the ruins below the summit of Gagazet held him spellbound. Even in the pretty orange and pink colors of the sunset-painted sky, Zanarkand was pale and lifeless. It was true. Everything they had said was true. He could never go home. His home was dead. Now, he stood alone on the rock hill of the outskirts of Zanarkand, overlooking the flooded remains.

Earlier that day, he had touched the wall of the Fayth, and it changed his life forever. One touch had swept him into the dream, where Bahamut met him on his houseboat.

_"The people ... What, they're all dreams?" Tidus felt a chill creep up his back. "Me, too?"_

_They moved to a different part of the deck. "Yes, you're a dream of the Fayth. Your father, your mother, everyone ... All dreams. And if the Fayth stop dreaming ..."_

_In spite of what his senses told him, in spite of what he had always believed, in spite of all that he had experienced, … he wasn't real. Tidus shook his head in anger. "No! So what if I'm a dream! I ... I like being here!"_

_"We've been dreaming so long. We're tired. Would you and your father ... Would you let us rest? Both you and your father have been touched by Sin. Sin, the one around whom all Spira - the spiral - revolves." Bahamut vanished._

_Tidus looked for him, and he reappeared in the distance. "What are you saying?" _

_"You two are more than just dreams now."_

With the memory of re-entering Dream Zanarkand still fresh in his mind, Tidus continued to ponder what Bahamut meant in saying that. More than just a dream, yet still a dream? He tried to understand, but he just couldn't. And he couldn't tell anyone else. This was worse than having to tell them that Sin was his father. What would Yuna think of him, if she knew he wasn't real?

His hand went to his pocket. Unzipping it, he removed the small, blue memory sphere that he had found at the top of the mountain summit before heading down the road into Zanarkand. The rest of the party had gone on alone, and he had stayed behind to view it, not knowing it was Yuna's recorded messages to all of her guardians. It had saddened him to watch it, but he turned it on and forwarded it again to the part where she was addressing him.

_"So, this is what it feels like. It's a much more wonderful feeling than anything I had ever imagined. Wonderful, ... but it hurts, sometimes. I wonder. I ... I just want to say thank you for everything. Maybe, ... maybe that's why it hurts. When I ... When I think about us never being together again at all, ... I'm afraid."_

Not only was it a confession of her love for him, but this had been recorded all the way back at the highroad, the day before riding the chocobo. Why hadn't she said something to him sooner? Tidus clenched his teeth and continued viewing.

_"No, I shouldn't say that. I'll do that part over. Um, ..."_

_"Whatcha up to?" he had asked, approaching from behind her._

_Embarrassed, Yuna fumbled the sphere to quickly turn it off._

Tidus turned the item over in his hands a few times. He knew he should return it to her, but he wanted to throw it into the sea - not because of what she said, but because of why she was saying it. It was a goodbye. Maybe he _would_ throw it into the sea, just as soon as he found a way to keep her alive.

))((

Also on the road to Zanarkand, Kaila had been waiting impatiently for their illusion's return, along with his summoner's party. It had been so long since she had seen Tidus, she almost ran to hug him as soon as she spotted him coming down the mountain slope from the Fayth Scar. It was good to have him within range of the dream again. But as he passed through her and paused behind the group to review and agonize over the sphere in his hands, she realized he wasn't behaving like his usual sunny self anymore. "You told him, … didn't you?" she guessed, glancing toward Bahamut, who followed behind him.

"He touched the magic in the Fayth Scar and fell unconscious. He's still an illusion, so it was easy to draw some of his pyreflies into it with me. It was time he learned the truth about himself, now that they're here. I decided against telling him about Shuyin, though." The boy saddened. "Tidus doesn't want to give up his life in the real world."

"Can you blame him?" Kaila looked to their prodigy with full sympathy for what he must be feeling right now. "This goes beyond any betrayal Shuyin ever knew. Tidus's whole life is a lie. But he once told me he would be willing to let go of himself, if he thought it could spare a loved one. I'm sure he will still do the right thing in the end – for her sake."

))((

Soon, Tidus would be entering the broken streets of the city in which he only _thought_ he once lived. He would be passing through real ghosts trying to save a real world he had never even been a part of, until this journey began. It was strange, knowing that he was only a temporary means to an end – created for the sole purpose of killing his own father. Tidus sighed and gently returned the sphere to his pocket, zipping it once more. He would decide what to do about it later. Drawing a breath, he hopped down from the ruins and crossed the road back to where his companions were camping.

They had picked up one more member to their party after crossing the Moonflow, before the incidents that led to their arrest in Bevelle. Rikku, the Al Bhed girl he had met on the ship, turned out to be Yuna's cousin. Desperate to save her cousin's life, she had been the one who told him the truth about Yuna's sacrificial pilgrimage. But now Rikku was sitting at the campfire telling an animated story about their first meeting in the Baaj ruins. Tidus smiled to himself, listening to her first impressions of him after he told her he was from Zanarkand. The storytelling, he supposed, was a means of calming everyone's nerves, though it was only delaying the inevitable end of their journey. As he listened to her story, however, Tidus realized he had created his own story, … just like Auron said when he pulled him from the dream. That cheered him enough to join in the conversation again.

"Hey, gimme a break. That was my first time fighting one of those things. _My _Zanarkand never had fiends, ... or Al Bhed, or ronso, or chocobos ... I'll always remember the first time I rode a chocobo, though." He grinned at Yuna, who was seated near the campfire. With a short hop, he crouched behind her to bury his face in the yellow, floral bow of her kimono. "I'm closing my eyes, so I can't see anything," he said in a soft-spoken, falsetto voice.

Everyone laughed at his imitation of the summoner, including Yuna. Although, she did turn and give him a deserving push for his teasing, making him fall on his backside. Laughing with everyone else, Tidus rested his elbows on his knees and tried to remember as many details as he could about her, his friends, and this place. Even if he wasn't real, he had real memories – memories he hoped he could take with him to wherever dreams went when their surreal lives were done.

))((

"Welcome to Zanarkand." Lady Yunalesca greeted them inside the ruins at the Chamber of the Fayth, which they had just discovered was empty. "I congratulate you, summoner. You have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow you with that which you seek. The Final Summoning will be yours. Now, choose." The powerful, unsent spirit gracefully descended the stairs and spread her arms. "You must choose the one whom I will change to become the Fayth of the Final Summoning." Everyone in the group gasped, but Yunalesca remained reserved as she explained. "There must be a bond, between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Summoning embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin."

Tidus thought the woman sounded a lot like Seymour. Both of them thought the only way to end the suffering was more death. And when Yunalesca explained how she used her husband to summon the first Final Aeon, and after pyrefly memories of Jecht's voluntary sacrifice appeared in her wake, Tidus's water dragon visions came back to him. It hurt to understand his own dreams now. The Fayth wanted _him_ to become the next Final Aeon so he could break the cycle. He could almost feel their eyes on him. He knew he should step forward and volunteer. It was what he had been created for; it was the only reason he lived. But if he became the Final Aeon, Yuna would die. Nothing would change. And then her death will have been for nothing. Hadn't he learned, somewhere in his past, that dying together accomplishes nothing?

He didn't want to disappoint anyone, but it didn't make sense. How could he break the cycle if he was trapped within it? There had to be another way - a way that would end _all_ the sacrifices, now and in the future. He refused to step forward and volunteer. He resisted being part of the cycle.

))((

Kaila and Bahamut hid in the shadows, anxiously awaiting the Final Summoning transformation as they had so many times before when the ritual pilgrimage came to this end. Yuna and her guardians debated this unexpected turn of events, and all of them were willing to become the Fayth of the Final Aeon – all of them except Tidus. He argued against it, insisting there must be a way to change things.

Bahamut frowned and began to fear for their entire plan. "Why isn't Tidus volunteering? Surely he knows by now that it's supposed to be him."

"Maybe ... he's afraid to die," Kaila whispered for fear that Yunalesca would hear them. "That's understandable, right?"

"But he's the only one who stands any kind of chance against Yevon's possession. It _has_ to be him! If he doesn't volunteer, maybe Yuna will choose him, right? Because she loves him. Their bond is the strongest." He seeped through the walls into the summoning chamber as Yuna took all of her guardians with her. Kaila silently followed.

Inside the other room, Yuna and her guardians argued with Yunalesca about the teachings of Yevon - about the promises, ... the lies. The unsent high summoner was beginning to grow impatient with their delay. "Now, choose. Who will be your Fayth? Who will be the one to renew Spira's hope?"

The guardins stood in silence while they awaited Yuna's decision. "No one," Yuna finally answered, stunning everyone. "I would have gladly died. I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them. But no more! The Final Summoning is a false tradition that should be thrown away!"

Standing behind her with his arms folded at his chest, Tidus closed his eyes for a second in silent relief. Yuna had refused to sacrifice him - or any one else. After drawing a steady breath, he opened his eyes and focused a stern, dangerous glare on Lady Yunalesca - one that might as well have come from a water dragon aeon.

The Fayth gasped and looked at each other at a loss for words. That had _never_ been done before - not in a thousand years! They had given Yuna the best Final Aeon anyone could imagine for her chance to defeat Sin, and she had chosen to throw that chance away. Stressed at the unbelievably unexpected outcome, Bahamut gripped the hood covering his head. "What are they _doing_? It's not possible to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon! None of the rest of us are strong enough to defeat Yevon! This is so totally screwed up!" Upset that all their hard work and plans seemed to be falling to pieces, the boy angered and kicked the side wall, though his foot went right through it.

Kaila hushed him and pulled him back down to watch as Yuna and her guardians argued more with Yunalesca.

The unsent spirit pitied them for throwing away their reward, telling them that it was better to die with hope than to live with sorrow. Finally, Yunalesca decided she had tolerated as much impertinence as she could handle. She couldn't allow them to leave and tell anyone what they had learned - that no matter how many lives were sacrificed, and no matter how hard they tried to atone for their past crimes, Sin would always return. Revealing her fiend form - a giant Medusa-like head covered in skull-faced snakes - Yunalesca attacked. She drained their life energy and turned them into zombies, like the priests and fallen warrior monks she surrounded herself with as her guardians in the dead city.

Without being able to heal their own wounds, Yuna's party used an abundant supply of holy water, phoenix down, and hard hits on the unsent high summoner. They fought back, … and they won.

In the shocking aftermath of the battle, having permanently done away with any hope of ever receiving the Final Aeon, Yuna's exhausted party left the ruins with the same exact headcount they had when they arrived. The Fayth levitated along the upper wall in the summoning chamber in complete silence for a long moment before Kaila finally spoke again. "Now what do we do?"

"Zaon got his wish for Yunalesca to join him in the Farplane, but without any way to defeat or calm Sin now ..." Bahamut slowly shook his head, at a total loss for ideas about how to salvage anything from this. "I honestly don't know," he admitted with fear.

After a long moment, Kaila took Bahamut's hand and touched down in the center of the summoning chamber with him. "Talk to him," she suggested. "He's probably just as frightened as we are, and you can follow them anywhere in a way that I can't."

Bahamut stared at the place where Yunalesca was defeated. Not a trace of her was left. "Not even a trace ... They killed the aeon before it could even manifest. There's no trace of it for Yevon to claim." The boy drew an uncertain breath and turned to face Kaila with hope once more. "I think I've got an idea how we can still help them."

))((

As they left the interior ruins, Auron told Tidus the last piece of background missing from his story - the truth of his own death. Tidus flinched a little, but realized that Auron's undead state is what allowed him to enter the dream and watch over him all those years - or at least it felt like a lot of years. Was he really seventeen? He had no idea how long or short his existence truly was anymore.

Outside the ruins, Sin - Jecht - hovered in the sky above the retreating party. Tidus realized his father had been waiting to meet him in battle and probably saw his refusal to volunteer for the transformation as another failure. Stubbornly insisting they had at least broken the cycle by not taking part in it, he promised they would find another way to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon.

Later, however, after Yuna's party was picked up by the ancient, machina airship which Tidus helped Rikku and her family excavate near Baaj, he found himself asking the same question as the Fayth. "So what do we do?"

Auron turned away from his companions, as they discussed proposals about how to solve their problem now. "We think, and we wait." He walked away.

Just the opposite of how confident he had been in defying Yunalesca, Tidus quirked his mouth, and his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Two things I'm bad at," he mumbled to himself.

Eventually, they decided to go to the Bevelle temple and confront unsent Maester Mika about it. They suspected that he knew more than he was telling about the truth behind the teachings. Mika had been mortified to find out that they had refused and destroyed their only chance to receive the final aeon. He prophesied the destruction of Spira and then explained to them who Yu Yevon was - a piece of history that Spira had long since forgotten. The unsent maester then vanished, believing his reign was over.

Bahamut had appeared to Tidus and Yuna after that, and Tidus had been surprised and delighted to find out that she could see the boy, too. Then again, why shouldn't she? She's the Fayth's summoner. Bahamut had told them a little more about their adversary, since neither of them had ever heard of the namesake of the Church of Yevon before. Bahamut informed them how Yu Yevon perpetuated the cycle by merging with and living inside the Final Aeon, making sure they understood that the ancient high summoner was their ultimate target. Then, he had begged Yuna to call on her aeons for help in the battle against him. Tidus remembered what the boy had said after that.

_"But, you know, ...when it is all over we will wake, and our dream will end. Our dream will vanish."_

_Tidus saddened a little. "Yeah. You've been dreaming a long time, haven't you?" _

_Bahamut sympathized. "I'm sorry."_

_Tidus was silent for a short moment. "I'm grateful," he countered. And he meant it._

Yuna had suspected Tidus was hiding something after that, but he had denied it. He still didn't know how to tell her.

))((

"Good afternoon. How are your Al Bhed studies coming along?" Rin asked as Tidus passed him in the corridor of the airship. Rin was an enterprising Al Bhed merchant and owner of a small chain of travel agency inns scattered throughout Spira's main roads.

Tidus owned a stack of Al Bhed books he had been collecting from the various places they visited. At one time, he had been vaguely interested in learning their language, but now he saw no point. "I'm afraid I haven't been studying much lately, what with Sin and all ..."

"Understandable. If you need help, please let me know. I will be glad to be of service in helping you learn our language."

"Yeah, for a fee." Tidus gave a curt smile.

Rin laughed lightly. "One has to make a living. Are you in need of any supplies?"

"Nah, I'm good. I ..." Tidus paused for a moment. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any memory spheres for sale, ... would you?"

"Ordinarily I don't, but you are in luck. I always carry one for my own use, but this one has not been used yet. I'm willing to sell it, if you like." The blond Al Bhed reached into his pocket and fished out the small, blue device.

"How much is it?" Tidus dug into his pocket for some money he'd earned from catching fiends for the Crusader training center in the Calm Lands recently.

"Five hundred gil, please."

He stopped digging. "What? It's water inside a snow globe, and it doesn't even have any snow! How can it be worth five hundred gil?"

"The water comes from Macalania Woods, … where there are a lot of fiends."

"Did you gather the water yourself, or did you pay someone else to do it?"

Rin laughed. "A shrewd businessman, I see. I will let you have it for half price and an offer of a job after you bring the Calm. How does that sound?"

Tidus blinked at the memory sphere. He might not be around after the Calm, _if_ they succeeded at bringing it. "Two hundred and fifty, then." He counted out the gil and passed it into the merchant's hands, accepting his new sphere.

"Thank you for your patronage, ... as always."

Tidus gave a light bow in response and headed back to his room in the cabin. Inside, he climbed up to the top bunk and seated himself cross-legged on it to gaze down at the memory sphere. He wasn't even sure why he bought it, really. It wasn't like he could take it with him. He set the sphere back down and ran his fingers through his hair as he lowered his chin in thought. Lots of thoughts shot through his mind, but which ones did he want to keep? Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew Yuna's memory sphere and set it down beside his own. Then, with a heavy sigh, he picked up his sphere and turned it to face himself, adjusting the distance before turning it on.

"Yuna, um, ... hi." He scratched his head lightly, not sure how to say this, but it was easier to say it to a blob of pyrefly-filled water than to her, or anyone else. "You're right. I _am_ a bad liar. But if you're watching this, then … I'm probably ... gone. I found out I'm ... part of the Fayth's dream, so I'm not, um … " He paused to sniffle and wipe one eye. "They said all of the dream would end, … including me." He tried to smile through his sadness, but he just wasn't as good at it as she was. "Anyway, ... I had fun! I enjoyed it. Having a little bit of time here is better than not having any time at all, right? I'm going to miss Spira, but I'll remember it, ... and you, ... always." With a heavy sigh, his composure slumped, and he dropped his head into his hands. "Who am I kidding? I can't do this." Hearing a knock on his door, Tidus quickly shoved both spheres under his pillow. "What do you want?" He dried his eyes.

Yuna pushed the door open a crack and peered in. "We have a recording of the hymn now. We're ready when you are." They were going through with the attempt to broadcast the "Hymn of the Fayth" to sooth Sin's temperament long enough to get some solid initial attacks on it, and they had asked at the temple to spread word for as many people as possible to join in singing the song.

"Cool. I'll be out there in just a minute."

She came into the room and grasped the edge of his bunk. "Are you okay? Sir Jecht is your ... I mean, … it's okay to be upset about this."

Tidus gave a sarcastic laugh. "After everything he's put me through - everything he's done - you think I'd be upset? He deserves what he's got coming."

Yuna's brows rose, clearly hoping he didn't mean that. Withdrawing her hands, she gave a small nod and turned to walk away. Nagging doubt prompted her to look over her shoulder at him one more time before offering a concerned smile and pulling the door shut behind her.

Tidus sighed and pulled her sphere out from under the pillow. Yuna was going to live, if he had anything to say about it.


	39. Chapter 39: Calm After the Storm

Chapter 39: Calm After the Storm

Nooj arrived in Luca before Shuyin released control of him and subsided back into the corners of his mind. Only then did the events immediately following Operation Mi'ihen come crashing down on him. Why had he killed his friends? _Why?_ The shock of what happened to him in the cave must have made him lose his mind. Guilt and shame settled on his shoulders enough to drive him into the sports bar and order a large drink after his long, cumbersome walk.

Shuyin had never been to Luca, so he had no idea how much the city had or had not changed over the past thousand years. So in his silence, he observed … and learned.

When Nooj finished his drink, he sighed heavily and set the glass down on the bar. With the demise of the Crimson Squad and the act of killing his friends, he was torn between thoughts of ending his life now, or going home to Kilika to try to recover from his trauma. His family and friends were all helping to rebuild the island after Sin destroyed it recently, but what good would that do? Sin would only come back, and they would all die anyway. Depressed and suicidal, he left his payment near the glass and headed out to find a room an inn.

After laying low for a couple of long, empty days, Nooj eventually set out for Luca's docks to take a ship home, but Shuyin turned him around, back to the highroad, and straight for the chocobo attendant. Nooj had no idea why he needed to go to Bevelle, but he felt it was urgent all the same. And with his limp, the chocobo was a more welcome means of transportation than walking.

Nooj rode back in the direction from which he came, until he drew near to Rin's Travel Agency to stop for the night. The bodies of his friends were gone. Had he inquired, he would have learned that that the Al Bhed owner of the agency heard the gunfire and brought the wounded victims inside, where he revived and healed them using magical potions from his store's stock. Had he asked, Rin could have told him that Gippal and Baralai were still in sharp disagreement over the ill-fated missions of the Crimson Squad and Operation Mi'ihen, so they went their separate ways. But being a fugitive, Shuyin decided Nooj should pass on any conversations concerning his friends. Heading further up the road, he found a place to sleep under the open sky, instead.

A couple of days later, Nooj was back on Mushroom Rock Road. It was a risk traveling so close to where he was supposed to have been executed, but it was the shortest route to Bevelle. Stealing a cloak left on one of the Crusader's supply crates along the roadside, he drew it over his head and most of his face and body in an effort to remain hidden as he rode past the canyon. Disguised as such, he went slowly, eavesdropping on the Yevon-forsaken Crusaders that remained at the command center to clean up the mess. The survivors were lamenting their failure as the consequence of disobeying the temple's teachings, just as the temple had warned them. Kinoc was nowhere in sight, but he clearly didn't want anyone else finding out what had happened in that cavern. The Den of Woe was heavily guarded while a new lock was fitted into the door.

Gippal was right; the whole Crimson Squad operation seemed to be nothing more than a means to draw out and exterminate those willing to turn their back on the temple's teachings. In fact, the reason Operation Mi'ihen was officially condemned, but personally tolerated in spite of that, was probably because it was an easy way to exterminate non-believers among all of Kinoc's warrior ranks. There was no doubt about it now in Nooj's mind, the Temple of Yevon was corrupt from the inside out. If he survived long enough to see the next Calm, he made up his mind to do something about it, even if it meant tearing down the temples with his bare hands to expose their treachery.

Shuyin silently agreed and congratulated himself for picking a host with such a keen intellect and taste for revenge.

While passing through Guadosalam, however, Nooj was surprised to spot an alive-and-well Baralai coming out of the home of Maester Seymour. What was he doing here? Baralai had wanted to return to the maesters for help, even after they were targeted by Kinoc's guards, so his presence here now looked very suspicious. Had Baralai been part of the scam? And if Baralia had been part of it, what about Gippal? What about Paine? Nooj remained hidden as he watched Baralai leave the tree-root city through the tunnel leading to Bevelle, but it only heightened his mistrust for the organization and his former friend. Nooj remained in Guadosalam longer than he anticipated, in order to avoid running into Baralai on his journey north.

))((

On the outskirts of Bevelle, during the night when he was sure Nooj was sleeping, Shuyin's spirit left his host's body and flew to the docks. _Lenne ..._

Diving into the depths of the watery grave, he drew enough pyreflies to bring his body into ghostly form and swam through a large portion of the area. "Lenne!" he called after surfacing. "It's me - Shuyin! I've come back for you! Please, tell me if you're here!" When the sea offered no answers regarding her location, he searched the lower levels of Bevelle's dungeons, even returning to Vegnagun's storage chamber, to the place where they were killed. Finally, with no luck or leads, Shuyin dispersed his pyreflies and flew back to Nooj's camp just before dawn. The morose warrior was still sleeping, so the unsent spirit nestled back into the recesses of his host's mind once more and tried hard not to relive the nightmare that had been his only companion for the past millennium.

After leaving Bevelle, Shuyin headed through Macalania Woods and across the Calm Lands. That evening, as he reached the base of the mountains, he saw an airship flying toward the plains from Bevelle. He could tell Nooj was surprised to see an ancient airship in flight, but it was being followed by something even more extraordinary - Sin. The airship launched a missile attack on the gigantic aeon, and the aeon fired back with strong magic. Shuyin ran behind some rocks to stay clear of the battle, but in the end it didn't seem like much of a fight at all. Sin swallowed the ship whole, then hovered motionless and alone in the sky, as if daring anyone else to challenge it.

Nooj's body was exhausted from the long journey and needed to rest for the evening before climbing the mountain, but with Sin hovering so close over the Calm Lands, Shuyin was wary of any further action it might take. Most of the night, Sin did absolutely nothing, so Shuyin used the time to learn more about it from Nooj's mind. He was appalled by what he discovered. _The temple sacrifices summoners and their guardians to destroy Sin and bring the Calm._

The concept left Shuyin with the same bad taste in his mouth as when he found out the Bevelle temple had sacrificed Zanarkand to the Founders. He became angry as he remembered Yevon's subtle attempt to sacrifice Lenne to transform her into a Fayth – a transformation that eventually took the lives of Bahamut, Kaila, and all of Zanarkand's survivors. Yet after losing all those lives in the Machina War, the temple's solution for peace was to sacrifice even more lives to Yevon's desire for revenge? If they truly wanted to destroy Sin, why didn't the maesters just use Vegnagun against it? Operation Mi'ihen might have succeeded if the Crusaders had been allowed to use the mega-machina. But Shuyin already knew the answer to his own question. Why banish Sin when it could be used to maintain power over people who fear it?

Frustrated, Shuyin slammed Nooj's machina hand into the rock he was hiding behind, chipping off fragments of stone. "Still traitor to your own people!" he shouted up at the sky where Sin floated above the Calm Lands. "In a thousand years, nothing has changed!" Distraught that the modern world had learned nothing from the past, Shuyin threw his back against the rock and ran his hands over his head, burying his face in his arms over his knees. Though he was free from his walls in the Den of Woe, he began to feel as if they were closing in on him once more.

The night passed without incident in spite of the ominous threat hovering in the sky. Shuyin allowed Nooj to sleep while he kept his silent vigil. But in the early morning darkness, there was a sudden explosion from within Sin's shell that lit the aeon up like a paper lantern. Not long after that, the airship shot out of the aeon's body, and Sin fell from the sky with an explosion that rippled across the Calm Lands and beyond it – a ripple that burned brighter than the light of day.

Nooj had fallen asleep, in spite of Shuyin's watchful vigil, but the explosion abruptly awakened him. Shuyin wasn't sure what had just happened, so he fed into his host's active thoughts. A summoner had managed to defeat Sin and bring the Calm.

Pyreflies were drawn toward Sin from all directions, like shooting stars. Yunalesca's aeons that Shuyin remembered seeing in the Machina War hovered near the airship in peaceful stasis until their bodies burst apart like fireworks on a summer night, vanishing from sight. Countless pyreflies of seemingly infinite number sprayed out in one final ripple across the heavens and then Sin was gone, leaving only a thick cloud cover to blanket the sky before sunrise.

Neither of them knew that ripple started in a dream, or that it would change all of Spira ... forever.

))((

Kaila had been standing on the summit of Mt. Gagazet among the other Zanarkand Fayth when the bonds of Yevon's summoning spell fell away from them. They had been anxiously watching Sin and waiting to hear back from the Fayth who had been summoned as aeons, when everyone felt the magic fade at the same time and looked to each other in shock. For the first time in a thousand years, something had definitely changed.

As soon as the first ripple of pyreflies burst across the sky in a blinding flash, Kaila flew down to the Fayth Scar on the mountain side. The stone node sealing their bodies had faded. The life bound to the stone melted away. Closing her eyes, she tried to enter the dream, but Dream Zanarkand was gone. The stream of summoning magic shriveled into a globe and peeled back to release all the memories used to conjure it.

"Bahamut, … he did it." On the verge of tears, Kaila looked back toward the mountain top where the other Fayth were shouting for joy and flying toward the airship so that the summoner could dance for them at last. "We're free." As she quietly followed, she was sad to be leaving Spira behind, but relieved to know that people would no longer suffer from Yevon's ancient curse. Most of all, though, she was proud of Tidus. In his short existence, the illusion had grown, changed, dreamed, lived and loved like real person. He had done the impossible by defeating Sin and Yu Yevon without the Final Aeon, and he had done it his own way, by making his own choices and inspiring Yuna to do the same. Flying to him on the deck of the airship, Kaila had just enough time to give Tidus a ghostly hug before her pyreflies released her to the Farplane.

))((

On the deck of the airship, Yuna twirled her summoning staff and danced her somber dance. She was sad, but relieved, to be sending countless souls to rest. It had been an exhausting and emotional day. After Tidus struck the killing blow to Sir Jecht, he held his dying father in his arms and cried without shame over his shameful deed. But Yuna had reminded him that Sir Jecht was now free. It had been difficult to say goodbye to Sir Auron when his pyreflies began to disperse at Jecht's sending. But he was ready to rest, now that his promises had been fulfilled. And she had barely been able to see through her tears as she fought each of her own aeons after Yevon possessed them, but she saw the wisdom in Bahamut's suggestion to call on them in the final battle against him.

Tidus fulfilled part of his destiny when he refused to be part of the cycle. He fulfilled the other half when his sword cleaved Yevon's blackened, no-longer-human heart, banishing the hate-poisoned spirit from the world of the living once and for all. And he had told his friends the truth about himself between those battles, so they would know what happened if he disappeared. But nothing could have prepared Yuna for the moment she saw Tidus starting to fade. The summoner stopped her dance to stare at the magical colors that played across his translucent hands, then stubbornly shook her head, refusing to accept it. (1)

"I ..." Tidus tried to sound upbeat for her, in spite of his own sadness, " … have to return."

Yuna shook her head again, not willing to accept this.

This only drew a more apologetic look from Tidus, since he was helpless to prevent his own dismissal in the midst of the Fayth's sending. "Wasn't able to lead you into Zanarkand. I'm sorry." Short and sweet made it easier for him to walk away, but as he started to leave, he stopped and took one last look at his new friends. "See ya, okay?"

Wakka grunted in protest and reached to stop him, but then realized the futility of the gesture.

"We're gonna see you again, right?" Rikku called out. "Right?"

As Tidus headed toward the bow of the airship, Yuna ran after him, desperate to hold onto him and keep him from fading.

"Yuna!" Kimahri called out.

Tidus turned and reached out to her as soon as he heard her footsteps behind him, but instead of being able to hold onto him, Yuna fell right through him. She heard everyone gasp, heard his soft sobs of disbelief mixed with the last of his real tears, and watched several pyreflies rise around her – his pyreflies. Her own magic had banished him from the world he had helped save. In refusing to sacrifice him for the Final Aeon, she had sacrificed him anyway for the Eternal Calm. His life had been forfeit from the moment he left the dream, regardless of whether he became the Final Aeon or not, … regardless of whether they won or lost. The price he had to pay to help them seemed so unfair, ... so cruel. And yet, he had stayed with them to see it through to the end.

Yuna made herself stand, but she was afraid that she would start crying if she turned to face him. She didn't want her selfish desire for him to stay to make him feel worse about having to go. Spira was free because of him. She was alive because of him. What could she possibly say or offer in return for everything he had done for them. She knew what she wanted to say, but all he could take with him was their gratitude. "Thank you." (2)

She didn't see Tidus turn in response, his brows drawn together in sad surprise. But a moment later, she felt his ghost-like arms fold over her shoulders for one last embrace. Closing her eyes, she tried to shut out everything but his nearness until he released her. Then, feeling his warmth pass through her, Yuna caught her breath to stop the tears. She tried to remain strong as he walked - then ran - to the edge of the ship's bow, without looking back. But her heart broke as she watched him jump into the clouds above the sunrise. Unable to be strong or selfless any more, Yuna turned and ran back into the airship.

In her cabin, Yuna collapsed on her bed and gave herself permission to cry. She had successfully brought the Calm to Spira once more - what she hoped would be the Eternal Calm this time, now that Yu Yevon was defeated, too. She should have been happy, but it hurt that Tidus wasn't here to share it. All that remained of him now was her memories and the knowledge of what he did for them.

After a few minutes, Rikku knocked on her door and let herself in to sit with her. She offered Yuna a tissue, then wrapped her arms around her cousin, trying to comfort her. "Maybe we'll see him again someday, you know?" Rikku sniffled and wiped at her own tears. "Maybe if we all try hard to dream about him tonight, when we go to sleep ... Maybe he'll be back tomorrow."

"He wasn't our dream," Yuna reminded her young cousin and sniffled. "He belonged to the Fayth, … and they are gone now." She pressed the tissue to her red eyes. "Rikku, ... thank you, but ... I think I need some time alone."

Rikku nodded in sad understanding and stood. The Al Bhed girl took one last look at the grieving summoner, but then quietly excused herself from the room.

Yuna stared at the blank wall for a long moment. He would be holding her, if he were here. Maybe she would even be lucky enough to receive another kiss. Everyone would laughing and cheering, and they would all have a big party to celebrate the Calm - the _real_ Calm. But he was not real. And yet, … he had been so real. How could he not be real? The void his absence left within her felt like an open wound.

Needing to be near him, Yuna left her room for the one that he and Wakka shared down the hall. She knocked lightly, but when no one answered, she pushed the door open and crossed the empty room toward the beds. Climbing the ladder to the top bunk, she lay down where he used to sleep. Curling her knees to her chest, she let her tears continue to fall; but as she slipped a hand under his pillow, her fingers touched something hard and cold. Brows drawn together in curiosity, she sat up and lifted the pillow to find a memory sphere hidden underneath. She thought at first it was hers, but remembered he had thrown that overboard. Yuna touched the activation button and stilled her breath as she viewed it.

_"Yuna, um, ... hi." Tidus scratched his head lightly, as if not sure what to say. "You're right. I am a bad liar. But if you're watching this, then … I'm probably ... gone. I found out I'm ... part of the Fayth's dream, so I'm not, um … " He paused to sniffle and wipe one eye. "They said all of the dream would end, … including me." He tried to smile through his sadness. "Anyway, ... I had fun! I enjoyed it. Having a little bit of time here is better than not having any time at all, right? I'm going to miss Spira, but I'll remember it, ... and you, … always." With a heavy sigh, his composure slumped, and he dropped his head into his hands. "Who am I kidding? I can't do this." Hearing a knock on his door, Tidus quickly shoved both spheres under his pillow._

Yuna smiled and wiped a tear from her cheek. Then, she clutched the sphere to her heart, lay back down on his pillow, and closed her eyes. Maybe Rikku was right. Maybe if she dreamed about him tonight, he'd come back tomorrow. And if that didn't work, maybe she could call him back with a whistle. And if that didn't work, … she'd just have to think of something else.

Wakka opened the door to his room and stopped short of entering when he spotted Yuna sleeping on Tidus's bunk.

Behind him, Lulu and Kimahri looked over his shoulder. "Yuna's heart hurts. Let her rest," Kimahri said with a soft, low rumble.

Lulu touched a hand to Wakka's arm, and he pulled the door shut, respectfully leaving Yuna alone with her memories.

))((

After the pyrefly magic that held his physical body together was dispersed by Yuna's sending, Tidus's unique, reinvented soul fled to the mists of the Farplane. Lord Braska, Auron, and his father were all there waiting to congratulate him. He gave his dad a high-five, and then behind him, his mother gave him a hug. Bahamut and Kaila came forward to stand before him. He gave Bahamut a high-five, too, but then faced Kaila with mild surprise. Now, he understood her test. She had been part of this. Kaila gave him a hug, and then all the familiar faces vanished. Or maybe he was the one that vanished. He wasn't sure.

))((

Shuyin continued north to Zanarkand with Nooj, but as he passed by the wall of the Fayth, he stopped to examine it. Shadowed outlines of bodies remained carved in stone, but the magical tomb was gray and empty. Shuyin wanted to cry out for Bahamut or Kaila to see if they would come to him, but he dare not. It might leave Nooj asking too many questions about the source of the voice within. Right now, his host believed it was his own mental trauma causing him to hear whispers and lose control. Shuyin wanted it to stay that way until he was ready to give up the half-machina body.

The unsent spirit roamed every inch of Zanarkand that was still above the surface of the water, but Lenne was still nowhere to be found. Discouraged, Shuyin sat down on the edge of the shore and tried to rethink his strategy. Just when he was ready to give up hope, he remembered his dad telling him that if he got lost while camping, he should stay in one place and eventually someone would find him. Maybe if he found one place to stay put, Lenne would eventually come looking for him. He didn't want to stay put any longer, though. He hated this world and all its problems. His dark thoughts turned toward Vegnagun once more.

Nooj was thinking about Vegnagun, too - still trying to figure out what he saw. Shuyin wondered if he should tell him what he knew of the colossus, or let him figure it out on his own. Then, he realized if he played his cards right while patiently waiting for Lenne, he might be able to use Nooj's insecurities to his advantage to accomplish his other goal as well. Nooj's mistrust of Yevon was the perfect tool for manipulating him into ending all fighting on Spira once and for all. _"Go to Djose,"_ Shuyin seeded a suggestion into the fertile soil of Nooj's confused and embittered mind.

Nooj frowned at the voice whispering in his mind. "No." He felt stupid talking to himself, but he felt even more stupid not knowing why he had walked all this distance to Zanarkand. "Maester Kinoc is in Djose. He betrayed us. I can't go back there."

_"But that's exactly why you must go_. _The temple and its teachings are corrupt. Maester Kinoc conveniently destroyed an elite fighting force without explanation to anyone about why. He knows about this weapon you saw and the girl who died because of it, or he wouldn't have tried to kill you for describing it,"_ Shuyin confirmed Nooj's suspicions. _"_The_ Church of Yevon probably knows many more things about the past that they do not want to tell the people of Spira. Keeping the people of Spira ignorant is one way to control them - like sheep led to slaughter. If you spread the word that the Fayth have left, people will rally to demand that the temple maesters explain why the teachings are flawed. The only way to find the truth about Kinoc's betrayal is to expose the temples' secrets. Find a connection, follow it, expose it. Tear down the temple walls, and let Spira learn the truth behind the lies. Your truth is hidden in Djose, behind Kinoc."_

"Expose the truth behind the lies," Nooj muttered to himself, slowly accepting the idea.

))((

On his return journey from Zanarkand's ruins, Nooj stopped in Bevelle. Shocking news traveled through the streets. Maesters Mika, Seymour, and Kinoc had all vanished without a trace. "Unsent" was the buzzword that traveled along with those rumors. Not only had rumors of the Calm already traveled ahead of him, but they were saying the High Summoner had survived the battle. She was going to be giving a speech in Luca soon and was being hailed with big fanfare. Spira was in for some sweeping changes now that it was bereft of its traditional leadership.

With Maester Kinoc gone, Nooj realized his appointment in Djose was pointless. So, he continued on his way home, but he did not give up his desire to turn Yevon upside down. In fact, these rumors would work in his best interest - unsent maesters? What kind of scam were they pulling on the public? Nooj decided to try to talk to Baralai when he stopped in Guadosalam. Maybe he could apologize and get some information from him, now that Maester Seymour was also gone.

_"Bad idea_," Shuyin whispered to his mind. "_Baralai could have been part of the trap. Baralai should be avoided - him and the remaining maesters. You want to talk to someone close enough to them to know their secrets, but distant enough to sell them out for the right price."_

Nooj knocked on the door, which was answered by two Yevonite guards he remembered seeing, though their uniforms were different now. "Maester Seymour isn't here anymore, and the guado have all fled Guadosalam," one of them droned. Apparently, he had repeated the news more times than he cared to previous visitors. "This is now property of the Leblanc Syndicate. What do you want?"

"Leblanc Syndicate?" Nooj was puzzled. That changeover had certainly happened fast, but then again, he had traveled rather slow. "You ... no longer work for Yevon?"

"No way, no how! We got a new boss since those Yevonites were all dead guys," the short round one answered.

"Is there a man named Baralai staying here?" Nooj asked.

"Nope. He left for Bevelle when the guado left."

Nooj frowned. "Would you two gentlemen mind gleaning some information on the current state of affairs within Yevon for me? I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee."

"You have to ask our new boss," the tall thin one told him. "Or better yet, perhaps she could get the job done for you. She has the largest syndicate in all of Spira, and her operatives are everywhere."

Crime syndicate - Nooj now understood. He wanted no part of illegal activities, however a spy would certainly come in useful right now. So would a network willing to spread damaging news about the temple. "May I speak with your boss?"

"Right this way, sir. Right this way!" The rotund guard showed him inside to the dining hall where a shapely blond woman in a low-cut, pink dress was whacking her fan over the heads of her movers. "Someone to see you, Boss!"

Leblanc turned around and froze in place. Her eyes roamed the tall, muscular young man with his long, light brown hair, and in spite of his half-machina body, ... she smiled. "What can I do for you, love?"

Shuyin would have rolled his eyes if it wouldn't have spoiled her impression of him, but he decided Nooj was completely on his own with this woman.

"I need help getting some rather well-kept information from Yevon. I have reason to believe they are hiding more secrets than unsent maesters from the people of Spira, and I intend to do something about it."

"Hm. Sounds risky, ... but interesting." She grinned and folded her fan as she came close - very close - to his side. "Do tell me more."

))((

_(Two years later ...)_

Seagulls flew lazily over the bay of Besaid as Rikku, Yuna, and Wakka stood on the deck of an Al Bhed salvage ship that Rikku and her brother used to hunt for buried machina. Rikku poked Wakka in the belly a number of times, teasing him about gaining weight since his retirement from blitzball, and she asked how Lulu was getting along in her pregnancy, since they were married and expecting a baby soon. Yuna smiled and lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the bright sun in the sky as her eyes followed the gliding circles of the birds overhead. Life seemed more peaceful and simple now that the Calm was here, ... and yet it didn't. With Yevon gone, new factions were vying for leadership of Spira, and everyone seemed to want the High Summoner to lend her presence to their agendas. It was very worrisome. Though Spira was free from Sin now, and the teachings of Yevon no longer ruled the land, the Calm didn't feel as calm as Yuna hoped it would be.

"Is Kimahri still at Mount Gagazet?" Wakka asked of Rikku.

"Yep, yep! He's teaching the Ronso orphans lots of things. He's a pretty good teacher. Anyway, I brought you something from Kimahri today." Rikku dug into her pocket and pulled out the gift item. "He said he found it up in the mountain."

"A sphere?" Not the sort of present Yuna was expecting, but she was intrigued.

"Looks kinda strange, huh?" Wakka commented.

"Yuna, ... watch carefully, okay?" Rikku turned the sphere on and held it for her cousin to see.

Through the static across the lens and the rumbling of chains clanking and rattling in the background, Tidus appeared to be trapped inside a cage. Yuna's eyes widened in disbelief and confusion. He was angry and complaining about trying to save a summoner. It made absolutely no sense that he would be in jail speaking about her like that, but Yuna smiled to herself at the way that he called her his girl. He had never actually used those terms with her before he disappeared. If only there had been more time before ...

Wakka and Rikku were as puzzled about the strange sphere as Yuna was, but after a short argument, Rikku talked her into coming with her on a treasure hunt to hopefully find some answers.

))((

A very old memory sphere bobbed on the ocean's undulating surface before a hand reached to grasp it. "Hm ..." Yuna turned the sphere over in her sandy, wet hands and pressed the activation button to view it.

_A sad young woman sat confined in a cage, until a sound drew her attention._

_A garbled sound was broken by static. "... I'll get you out of there. I promise."_

_The young woman looked around as white lines zig-zagged across the lens. _

_"... I'm here. I'm coming for you, okay? Just hang on," an unseen male voice insisted._

_"Where are you?" The young woman stood and frantically looked around some more._

_"Is there a sphere camera ... there? ... -ing you on a monitor."_

_She lifted her chin and looked across the ceiling. Static warped the screen nearly clearing any image for a second, but then she spoke again. "... anything stupid! If they catch both of us, ..." She was cut off by another white-streaked black-out._

Yuna tapped a finger against her cheek and frowned to herself. The sound and image were badly distorted.

"Is it worth anything?" Paine asked. She had joined up with Rikku and her brother's sphere hunting group, just before Yuna did, in hopes of regathering her lost recordings to find answers concerning what happened to her friends in the Crimson Squad. As she came to Yuna's side to see their catch, the former summoner touched the play button again.

Yuna looked to her cousin as Rikku joined them. "Doesn't he sound a little like ...?"

"Hmmmm ..." Rikku tilted her chin in a skeptical fashion.

"Someone you know?" Paine asked.

"I'm ... not sure," Yuna answered, troubled. Maybe she just missed him so much that she was beginning to think every unclear guy in a sphere might be Tidus.

"It can't be him," Rikku decided. "What would he be doing talking to another girl like that?"

"Maybe she's his girlfriend." Paine met immediate, unhappy expressions from both Yuna and Rikku. "Or, ... sister," she altered her suggestion to appease them.

"Well, that outfit she's wearing is kinda cute. Maybe you could use it as a dress sphere," Rikku suggested.

"Did you find anything?" Shinra, the Al Bhed whiz kid from their sphere hunting team, came to them and held up his hands to receive the orb.

Yuna watched it a third time, trying hard to hear the male voice in spite of the damage done through years of exposure to the elements. "Can you change it into a dress sphere without damaging the content?" she asked of the small boy, who happened to be an engineering genius.

"We can erase it to use as a dress sphere, or keep it as it is, but you can't have it both ways."

))((

_"No! Don't erase it!"_ Lenne's awareness within the sphere perked up. She had been drifting in the ocean currents for so long that her soul felt sluggish and lost to its own existence. Now that she was in the company of someone other than fish and fiends, she had been listening to what was going on. "_It's all I have left of him! Please, don't erase it!"_ That's what Lenne would have told Yuna if she could have summoned enough pyreflies to appear before her and speak, but the only pyreflies near her were the few that kept this small, damaged memory alive within the glass orb.

))((

Yuna hated to destroy the sphere without knowing, but she had no solid clues about who owned the other voice that had been recorded. "Dress sphere." She gave a firm nod with her decision and handed it to him, though she almost immediately wanted it back.

"Let's go make the preparations." The Al Bhed boy cupped the sphere carefully in his hands and hurried back to the Gullwings' airship. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine followed him to his work station. "I recommend a very light task for this one - mostly magic. How about something like a bard - you know, those people that can sing their spells, commanding magic with just their voices?" he suggested.

"A spell-singer?" Yuna gave a light laugh. "Well, I ... guess so. I've always loved music, but I never sang in front of other people before."

))((

_Song magic?_ Lenne couldn't believe her luck to have been found by someone who loved music. Traveling with this young woman could prove to be an interesting diversion after floating around in the ocean for so long. Maybe this young woman needed her help in finding the courage to get over her stage fright. Maybe by traveling with her, she could even find out what happened to Shuyin. Lenne replayed the memory of him promising to free her. Listening to his voice would never be a substitute for finding him, so she decided she could be at peace with whatever this young woman chose to do with her sphere.

))((

A short time later, when Shinra had finished copying the image of the singer's attire and transforming the memory sphere into a dress sphere, he fitted the shrunken glass ball into Yuna's new garment grid. "Try it on." He handed it back to her.

Yuna accepted the newly adjusted gold plate and touched the marble containing the new songstress outfit. As the magical garment wove itself around her, an incredible feeling of sadness overwhelmed her. After a few seconds when it settled, she walked to the mirror to view herself in the light brown knee-high boots; short, black skirt; and purple, ruffled blouse.

"Hey, that looks great on you!" Rikku complimented, moving to stand behind her cousin. "You know, you could use a new haircut to go with that new style."

"Haircut?" Yuna snatched her long braid that reached down to her calves and pulled it protectively in front of her shoulder. Everyone laughed at her panic. Then, Yuna laughed, too. Of course Rikku couldn't have meant something that drastic. Yuna looked at her reflection in the mirror once more. She loved her new dress, but she wondered if she had made the right decision to destroy the memory within the sphere.

Later that day, still wearing her new dress, Yuna kept thinking of the voice she had heard in the converted dress sphere. Hesitantly, she walked to her dresser and pulled open her bottom drawer. There, tucked among her sleepwear was a small chest of keepsakes. She had left Besaid rather abruptly without anyone but Wakka knowing that she was leaving, so there were few things she grabbed to bring with her on this new journey. But there was one thing that she couldn't leave without. Opening the chest, she reached in and withdrew the small, blue memory sphere that she had found under Tidus's pillow. She had lost count of the number of times she had viewed it, but now she wanted to view it one more time, ... just to hear his voice.

When it finished playing, Yuna put away her most treasured sphere and left the cabin for the bridge. There, while Shinra's seat was unoccupied, she sat down and punched up the sphere that Rikku had given her from Kimahri to view it on-screen, again, for comparison. That voice ... Yuna folded her arms on the console and lay her head down to rest on them. Even after two years, she still missed him.

))((

Lenne had watched Yuna's first sphere with her and was amazed at the similarities between the voice and face in the sphere and her memories of Shuyin. He had the same body language, the same facial expressions, and yet somehow it didn't quite seem like him. Who was this person?

The second sphere however, ...

_Shuyin! _Lenne immediately recognized the image of the young man rattling the bars of the prison cage in Bevelle's underground. Luck had finally turned in her favor. If Yuna was hunting for clues about what had happened to Shuyin, Lenne intended to stick with her every step of the way.

))((

Author's Notes:

(1) There is heavy use of game dialog throughout this story. I do not claim it and use it only to blend connections between my plot points and familiar game events. Most of the game dialog I use comes from the English game since I'm writing in English. However, here I decided to draw from the Japanese game dialog because I like its flow and meaning better. This is my translation, since I didn't think English speaking readers would appreciate me suddenly converting to literal Nihongo. ^_^ But that is why this dialog will be different from what most of you are familiar with.

(2) In Japanese version of the game, Yuna's last words to Tidus are "Arigatou/ Thank you," in recognition of his sacrifice for her and everyone else. The English game has her saying, "I love you." I prefer the Japanese version here because of the nuances carried in her gratitude, compared to just a confession of love. He knows that she loves him by her actions and her sphere confession, but she says so much more by acknowledging his sacrifice above her own feelings.


	40. Chapter 40: StarCrossed Search

Chapter 40: Star-Crossed Search

_"You know, you're all I can count on to save Lenne."_

Yuna was sitting on the top deck of the Celsius airship with her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth. She had been singing and dancing and having fun, but that phrase repeated in her mind ever since she heard it. It had come from a sphere they had recently stolen from the Kilika temple, and it had another image that looked like Tidus. In spite of her attempts to forget about it, she only became more irritated. "Who's Lenne? Why ... why am I so mad? Who the heck is Lenne?" Her outburst drew strange looks from her friends behind her. "I'm going to bed," she announced.

Yuna marched inside the airship and paced on the lift as it rose. Running down the hall to the crew's cabin and up the stairs to the loft, she went straight to her bed. She was so tired, that she didn't even bother to change out of her singer dress sphere before lying down in a huff. "Lenne ...," she grumbled to herself and closed her eyes to try to sleep.

))((

Lenne had seen that sphere when the Gullwings found it - Shuyin's attempted acquisition of Vegnagun that led to his initial arrest. She wanted to see it again. She wanted to see his face clearly one more time before they returned it. _"Yuna?"_ Lenne tried to reach into her dreaming conscience. _"Can you hear me? Yuna, please don't give the sphere back. You don't understand what happened to him - to us."_ Lenne's spirit felt as if she were weeping, even if tears could not be shed.

Yuna winced and stirred in her sleep, but she was too deep in slumber to be aware of the voice trying to reach her, and Lenne's spirit had grown too weak in her retreat from reality in her unsent state.

_"Here, ... I'll show you."_ Lenne used the pyreflies that helped make up the magical weave in her dress to recreate memories of their frantic run through the halls of the Bevelle dungeon toward Vegnagun.

Yuna's heart raced as she saw in her dreams, not Lenne and Shuyin, but herself and Tidus. They were racing for their lives, coming to a stop in front of a frighteningly large machina, and being ripped apart by the bullets of a warrior monk execution squad. That was all she could handle before panic woke her and she sat up, wide-eyed, to catch her breath. "What ...?"

Rikku and Paine where standing over her, worried.

"What 'what'?" Paine asked.

"It must have been a dream," Yuna guessed.

"A dream's a dream."

"Blame it on your new jammies." Rikku grinned.

Yuna looked down and realized she had fallen asleep in her dress, then she laughed lightly at her silly mistake.

Within the dress sphere, Lenne pouted. Obviously, Yuna didn't get her message. It was tempting to try to reach into reality once more, but she feared that her unsent soul would become a fiend if she did. That sphere had become her sanctuary, keeping her soul safe, and keeping others safe from her soul. She wondered sometimes why she continued hanging on, but she continued because she feared Shuyin was still out there somewhere, underneath the same stars, lost and alone. And there was something she needed to tell him before she could rest in peace.

))((

It had taken two long years to rebuild Kilika, but now it was a bustling town - a town in which Nooj's new political revolutionist party, the Youth League, was thriving. His plans to build a new headquarters there were moving along well, but for now he had taken a semi-permanent position on the precipice overlooking Mushroom Rock Road. His tower sat right over the spot where Kinoc's tent had once been the Operation Mi'ihen command center above the Den of Woe. Perhaps it was divine justice, since the Youth League made an effort to make ex-communicated and disenchanted Crusaders feel welcome among their growing ranks, but they were also drawing in membership from other citizens all over Spira.

The Church of Yevon had fallen when High Summoner Yuna and her guardians exposed the teachings to be empty tradition, but many conservatives did not want all of the temples' traditions to fade away just because of a few errant ones. New praetors moved into leadership to replace the old maesters, and after some unsettled, internal shuffling, Nooj wasn't surprised to find that Baralai had taken the lead in organizing a new church founded on the ideas of the old one. As Praetor, Baralai tried to assure the people of Spira that New Yevon was different, but Nooj only saw more suspiciously guarded secrets. He still intended to break the temple one way or another and find out exactly what it was hiding.

By this time, Nooj had established a relationship with the Leblanc Syndicate, and its flamboyant leader had become involved in the latest craze of sphere hunting because of her desire to find spheres for him that would unlock the magical combination in the door to the Den of Woe. Nooj was still seeking answers about what he had seen and experienced in that cavern. He almost joined the original sphere hunters' guild because, like them, he believed spheres were the key to unlocking the truth about Spira's past. Unlike them, however, Nooj wanted to expose the truth, not destroy it. When the sphere hunting organization broke into individual enterprises, Leblanc was more than happy to set her goons onto finding any spheres Nooj expressed an interest in. She had no qualms about how she went about getting them for him, and Nooj didn't ask or care how she handled her retrievals. The woman doted on him, so he was content to make use of her devotion.

When he invited High Summoner Yuna to join his quest for uprooting the truth in the temples, she declined. But he later found out that she, too, had joined a sphere hunting guild - the same one as Paine. Even Gippal had returned to a public life after the Al Bhed Home on Bikanel was attacked by the guado, in collaboration with Yevon. He had been right that Yevon was trying to out to wipe out as many heretics as possible. The spheres they were finding gave proof to that, and now that the former maesters of Yevon were gone and the church no longer had the power it once did, the Al Bhed were inserting themselves, and their machina, back into mainstream society. Gippal's organization, the Machine Faction, had seen to that. Deep down Nooj was grateful that his attempt to kill his friends had failed; but there was bitterness between them now, and they had not spoken to each other on a personal level since then.

From fugitive to founder, the mantle of being the Youth League's meyvn sometimes felt heavy. Nooj's machina limbs sometimes made the rest of him feel lifeless and cold. His mind was still haunted by deep feelings of despair - still hiding the shame of his madness and his guilt concerning his friends. Sometimes he would stare into space feeling lost to another time and place, though he could never exactly remember his thoughts during those times. It was like sleepwalking when it happened - being awake, but not aware of what his own body was doing. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone found out about his disturbing madness, ... or before he gave in to it again. Nooj couldn't have known that half of the despair he was feeling was Shuyin's.

))((

Nooj's lost moments were the times when Shuyin surfaced from the recesses of his mind. For the most part, the unsent spirit let his host live his own life and make his own decisions, actively encouraging him here and there along the way in order to keep his machina body alive and well, … and informed. But during those times when Shuyin grew impatient and discouraged, he dropped Vegnagun's name into Nooj's subconscious to prompt him toward more research. Disguised as guards, Leblanc's goons infiltrated the temple and copied files on the weapon that dated back to its creation. He made Nooj confront Baralai about it, asking about New Yevon's intentions in keeping it hidden, but the praetor had refused a direct answer. So, under Shuyin's suggestion, Nooj called for a raid on the Kilika temple to gather evidence - a sphere that Leblanc said supposedly showed a large machina weapon. Nooj didn't get the sphere; the High Summoner's guild did. But oddly enough, she brought it to him a few minutes ago. Lady Yuna had watched it, and he advised her to forget about what she had seen - to not get involved.

Shuyin had listened to their discussion without participating in it, but then Yuna surprised him by asking the identity of a young man in the sphere. He thought he felt a sense of familiarity in the way that she worded her question. He heard the disappointment in her voice when Nooj honestly answered that he didn't know. Shuyin was sure he was the one in the sphere, but why was she looking for him? He gave this young woman a long, hard look, wondering if maybe ... No, if Lenne was within her somehow, the same way he was within Nooj, he would have felt it. He was sure of it. Wasn't he?

"Wait!" Shuyin spoke up and stood, taking over Nooj's voice before the High Summoner and her companions could walk out the door. "Have you seen ...? I mean, ..." He paused trying to think of a better way to inquire without giving any information away. "Why do you want to know who he is?"

With a trace of sadness, Yuna's eyes shifted. "I'm ... looking for someone I lost two years ago."

Shuyin knew better than to expect much, but he was disappointed all the same. "Only two? This sphere is a thousand years old."

Yuna's expression mirrored his disappointment. "He looks so much like him. I just thought maybe ... But of course it couldn't be him if the sphere is that old."

"No, I guess not," he quietly agreed.

In Yuna's dress sphere grid, Lenne couldn't tell that Shuyin was there. Even if Yuna had been wearing Lenne's dress sphere, she would have seen Nooj instead. Though Lenne's soul was in the same room with him, Shuyin could sense nothing more than some strange, vague urge to stall Yuna's exit. With no valid excuses to make her stay, however, Shuyin sat back down and watched her and her friends leave.

Picking up the sphere she had given to Nooj, Shuyin touched the activation button to play the recording. The young man in the sphere with Vegangun was himself, just as he suspected, but when he pondered Yuna's odd inquiry, he recalled the first time he saw her. It was two years ago at Operation Mi'ihen, and she was traveling with a young man that looked exactly like him – right down to the Abes uniform. Shuyin realized that his concern for finding Lenne, keeping Nooj alive, and research on Vegnagun had made him forget to investigate his double. But now Yuna didn't even know where this poser was. He should have stalled her exit by asking more questions, but then he would have had to explain himself for being nosy. He sympathized with the fact that she missed the guy, whoever he was.

It had been two years since his escape from the warding glyphs of the Den of Woe. Why had Lenne not come looking for him the way Yuna searched for her lost friend? Maybe Lenne didn't want to find him. Maybe Lenne hated him now. Perhaps Kaila and Bahamut were right, and she went to the Farplane without him because unsent souls were so easily tainted with malice. Maybe he was waiting here in one place for something that would never happen.

Shuyin set down the sphere and removed Nooj's thin wire glasses from his nose to rest his face in his palms for a dark moment. The High Summoner knew about Vegnagun now, so maybe it was time to push all that research for his other plan into action, instead of waiting for Lenne to find him. He knew where Vegnagun was hidden, and now Nooj did, too, thanks to that sphere.

))((

Though the Farplane was a place of eternal rest, the pieces of Tidus's soul spent time thinking, ... remembering. At first, he was simply remembering the flow of his journey from beginning to end. Then, he tried to focus on his favorite parts of it. And then, he challenged himself to try to remember as many fine details as he could. But this was not restful or peaceful. It was painful. He had experienced friendship and love, only to have to let it go. He ached with loneliness more than when he was the only soul among a city full of empty illusions. He wished there was a way to live – to see her again – one more time. So, though it was painful, he returned to those memories, afraid that if he rested, he would lose them, too. His thoughts wandered in many directions all at once seeking something impossible to find - a way out of his banishment.

))((

_Because_ the Farplane was a place of eternal rest, the other spirits there did not interact as much as the spirits of the Fayth had, being bound within the dream. Spirits at rest slept, … or at least they were supposed to. But when Tidus's memories actively replayed within the mists, they often disturbed the rest of all the other spirits that happened to be near.

"That boy's going to drive us all nuts," Jecht finally spoke out.

"It's because he misses her." Dannae sympathized with her son. "He is a restless spirit that does not belong here yet."

"He can't spend an eternity in here if he's unable to rest," Auron agreed.

"Maybe it's because he is not whole," Kaila suggested. "He's not holding together very well without the illusion magic. Maybe if he could merge back together with Shuyin ..."

"I feel as if I have two different sons, though," Dannae said. "Are you sure they can become one again?"

Bahamut considered this. "I'm not sure. But Shuyin is not likely to come home. He is not himself anymore. His soul is poisoned with hatred, and he refuses to come here until he can find Lenne."

"Well, he always was a stubborn one," Jecht grumped.

"And that surprises you?" Braska arrived with a warm smile.

"He woke you, too, huh?" Jecht guessed.

Braska nodded, but laughed lightly. "I am touched by the compassion he yields for my daughter. It truly is a shame that he wasn't real. I could not have picked a better person to entrust her to. He _does_ have a good heart, you know. And though I never met Shuyin, I believe that deep down the same must be true of him." It was a compliment to Jecht and Dannae to cushion the painful news of what Shuyin had become.

"Maybe if we found Lenne, she could convince Shuyin to come back," Kaila suggested. "He'd listen to her."

"Where would we look for her? She's unsent, too," Bahamut reminded her.

))((

Tidus's thoughts roamed the netherworld mists, oblivious to their gathering and discussion about him. He could not use pyreflies to recreate his form into a ghost like they could. His soul was small and weak by comparison, a dream broken into individual thoughts. He felt everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Only one thought unified those scattered feelings into the collective consciousness of what he used to be. _Yuna ..._

))((

Careful to avoid guards where possible, Shuyin took Nooj to Bevelle and sneaked into the lower levels of the temple. He fought his way past the dungeon fiends to follow the same route that had led him to his death. Finally, he found the room where Vegnagun remained hidden. "We meet again," he spoke to it, his own voice layered over Nooj's as he approached. "Remember me? We were going to help Lenne escape. We were going to stop Bevelle from destroying what was left of Zanarkand. But I guess I wasn't as bulletproof as you are. You saw what happened to us. You are the only one besides the firing squad who witnessed our deaths. It's been a thousand years, and all this time that they've been forbidding the use of machina among the people of Spira, they've kept you as the ace up their sleeve." He snorted with contempt for Yevon's temples, then and now. "They're afraid to use you, but they're just as afraid to destroy you. I've done my research this time, though. I know what makes you tick now. And unlike them, I have nothing to fear. I have nothing left to lose. We've both been imprisoned for a millennium, but we can still stop Bevelle. We can stop time itself. Let's end this impossible to win game, okay? Just you and me."

As he came near, however, the machina began to shake. It had not acted this way before when he commanded it. He walked to the doors of the gun barrel and waited for it to open to him. When it did not, he touched the keypad that had opened it before, but Vegnagun chose to override the command. Shuyin's gaze darkened. "You don't remember me?"

"Hostility detected. Access denied," the machina answered.

Shuyin remembered reading in the stolen files that Vegnagun was programmed toward self-preservation. "I don't want to hurt you. I'm here to help you do what you were meant to do."

"Meyven Nooj identified. Access denied." Vegnagun suddenly disengaged itself from its power source in that room.

Shuyin frowned with disgust. "That bastard Baralai actually programmed it against me." He supposed it was his own fault for prodding Nooj into raiding the Kilika temple and threatening to tear down others. Not ready to abandon his plan yet, Shuyin looked down into the mysterious foggy depths beneath the machina's platform. He had no idea what was down there, and he could see no bottom, but he knew how to reprogram it based on what he had studied in the stolen files. All he needed was a different body so he could get close to it and time to work without interference from guards or fiends. After a moment of undecided, anxious pacing, he went to the room's control panel and began flipping switches. The platform in the middle of the floor dropped away, and Vegnagun fell into the dark depths below. He knew it wouldn't crash because of its programming to protect itself, but with the security switches off, Baralai was bound to send guards after it. Drawing a breath and reassuring himself that Plan B would work just as well, Shuyin hopped into the darkness to pursue the machina he had just freed.

Down the confusing halls he raced, down the gaping hole in the now-empty chamber of the Fayth, Shuyin ran until he came to a flower-filled glen with mystical looking waterfalls. Vegnagun was nowhere in sight. The powerful magic that surrounded him in this place called him to rest, but Nooj's living body anchored him to reality and resisted the pull that otherwise would have drawn him into the mists forever. "The Farplane?"

As he looked around in awe, he acknowledged that this was one place he had not yet searched for her. But if what Bahamut and Kaila had suggested was true, he would willingly give up his ghost right here. "Lenne?" he cried out, seeking the border waterfalls and meadow for some sign of her. "Lenne!" In a moment of desperate hope, he turned a full circle and waited.

))((

_"It's him!" _Kaila's spirit rose from the moon lilies and soared around Nooj's body. _"It doesn't look like him, but it's him! Who else would be here looking for Lenne? Bahamut, your magic is stronger than mine. Summon enough pyreflies to speak to him."_

Bahamut had awakened with Shuyin's shouts, too, but it was Kaila's perception of the situation that made him draw near to Nooj's face to inspect him.

Shuyin anxiously watched the pyreflies swirling and gathering near Nooj's body. "Lenne?"

The boy's spirit was skeptical, but he decided they had nothing to lose in speaking with this half-machina stranger. Bahamut materialized before Shuyin, but hesitated to speak until he was certain of the soul within.

Shuyin drew a breath of surprise. He seemed disappointed at first, yet glad to see the boy the moment he recognized him. Then, his gaze darkened and he spoke in his own voice. "Bahamut."

"Shuyin," Bahamut addressed with hesitation. It was awkward to speak to him, knowing he had possessed another person, and that person looked nothing like him. "It's … good to see you again. Please say that you've come home."

"If I leave this body, I'll be confined to this place, … won't I?" Shuyin guessed.

"The spirits of the Farplane must remain here," Bahamut confirmed his fear. "They can only wander within the plane of magic, though that does stretch to other places on Spira - places where the pyreflies are plentiful enough, such as Zanarkand, the Moonflow, Guadosalam ... The Farplane is peaceful and quiet, though, not confining," Bahamut assured him. "You can rest and not have to think or need anything."

"I need Lenne." Shuyin's composure cracked to allow a moment of his former compassion to shine through. "Is she here? Do you know where she is?"

Bahamut knew the answer was crucial, but he could not bring himself to lie. "No."

Shuyin was hurt to hear that, but he accepted it since it was what he had believed all along. "Then, this living body is more useful to me than a long rest."

"People aren't meant to live forever, Shuyin. When people go on and on, the burdens get to be too much."

"I don't intend to live forever. I intend to destroy Spira. It's the only way this world will ever know peace."

Bahamut became alarmed. "What? You can't still feel that way. You're ... you're thinking just like Maester Seymour, and ... Lady Yunalesca, and ... Yu Yevon, and ... Destruction is not the answer! We fought so hard to break the cycle, Shuyin! It took us a thousand years!"

"It is my understanding that Seymour intended to create a world of unsent spirits. I intend to make everything fade. No more senseless fighting. No more unsent spirits. No more Farplane. Just infinite nothingness." Nooj smiled back at him - a smile that looked more like Shuyin's than his own.

Bahamut's brows rose with sadness. "You're going to try to use Vegnagun again, aren't you."

"Where is it? I know it's down here somewhere."

The boy gave him an angry frown and defiantly crossed his small arms over his chest.

"Where is it?" Shuyin demanded, making an angry snatch for the kid's hooded collar, but Nooj's material hands passed right through the small ghost.

"Goodbye, Shuyin. Come back home when you are ready to let go." Bahamut's apparition began to fade.

"I'm not done with you yet!" Shuyin bellowed, daring to cast his magic on the boy's spirit. To his surprise, ... it worked.

Wild flashes of Shuyin's painful past and despair spun in Bahamut's mind. As the boy tried shield himself from the dementia, he wondered if this was how Jecht felt when Yevon possessed him.

Someone else was coming into the Farplane - first one person, running, and then several more. Shuyin could hear their voices beyond the misty veil above him. He listened carefully and recognized the voices of the Gullwings. "Damn!" he hissed through his teeth. "I knew the High Summoner might come looking for Vegnagun, too. Well, let's give Miss Yuna a run for her money, shall we? Remember when you came to the cavern to taunt me with freedom and trick me into resting? Remember that, Bahamut? I haven't forgotten it. You'll do what I say now. Keep her away from Vegnagun!"

Bahamut panicked and tried harder to cast a spell that might keep Shuyin locked out, but his soul was suddenly and involuntarily wrenched from the Farplane and pushed through a summoning portal. _Impossible!_ Shuyin was not a summoner! But Bahamut _did_ remember that last encounter with him in the cavern. The boy's headache grew more intense, and in spite of his attempt to further understand Shuyin's rare arcane powers, his thoughts kept wandering to the blitzball player's horrible flashbacks. Forced back into his black dragon form and thrust back into reality, Bahamut had no choice but to rise out of the Farplane's pit and spread his fearsome wings above Yuna and her friends, in warning not to enter.

"No way ..." Rikku couldn't believe her eyes. The Gullwings had just arrived in Bevelle to hunt for Vegnagun and confronted Baralai in a short scuffle, but he had disappeared ahead of them.

Paine had never seen anything like it. "What is it?"

"It's an aeon!" Rikku whimpered, freaked out by both its strange appearance and the fact that it looked like it wanted to fight.

His eyes glowed with red fire of hate and his body burned with black energy of revenge, but Bahamut tried desperately to communicate with his former summoner. _"Yuna! Go away! I don't want to fight you!"_ But his words became a deafening roar as soon as they left his throat.

"An aeon ...?" Yuna's eyes widened in disbelief at Bahamut's return, and his hostility toward her. She raised her arms to bar her friends from attacking it, … or bar him from attacking them. "You must stop!" she begged hoping her former friend would recognize her.

Paine shoved Yuna back and readied her sword. "You wanna get killed? We have no choice!"

Bahamut pleaded with her one more time to run, but then was compelled to attack.

))((

Behind them and down in the Farplane, Shuyin turned his attention to another person coming through the mists.

"You have no right to be down here!" Baralai's normally soft-spoken voice barked in anger. "Get out now!"

Shuyin mentally receded to let the Youth League meyvn answer for himself. Nooj looked around in confusion. "Baralai ...? What is this place?"

Baralai softened his volume, but kept a thin line of warning in his tone. "You've crossed the threshold into the Farplane. No one should be here disturbing the dead. Let them rest in peace."

Nooj's own mind panicked a little knowing he couldn't account for his decisions. "Look, something strange has been happening to me. I think I should meet with you and Gippal somewhere else to talk about it. There's something about this place ... I can't think straight."

"Then leave." Baralai lowered his double-ringed staff and pointed its bladed end toward his former friend.

Shuyin took over once more before Nooj could confess to hearing voices in his head. "I will leave when it's safe to leave." He lifted his eyes to indicate the battle going on above them.

Baralai's eyes followed his glance up, but then a powerful machina fist crunched into his gut, knocked the wind out of him, and bowled him over.

Shuyin crouched over the unconscious young man on the ground and studied his features. Vegnagun had recognized Nooj's face and forbid him access. Vegnagun would recognize Baralai as the praetor. The machina weapon would probably cooperate with the praetor better than anyone else. Shuyin knew what the next step in his plan to gain control of Vegnagun again had to be, but first he had to get Yuna off of his back. Her persistence was beginning to annoy him, so he determined to summon every one of her former aeons to get rid of her, if necessary.

Shuyin disappeared behind the mists to walk the pathways within the plane of magic that Bahamut had mentioned. This time, he summoned Yuna's aeons, stationing them in their former temples and along this path under his control. If the aeons couldn't stop her, they could at least attract numerous fiends to attack the villages. Yuna would volunteer to defend helpless people, and that would keep her hands full - long enough for him to carry out his plans for Vegnagun, at least.

))((

"Shuyin! How could you!" Kaila fussed, as he walked away. "What's happened to you?" Bahamut was right. He had turned into a monster.

She looked up to the battle where Bahamut had been forced to attack Yuna and her friends, then she looked down at the praetor of New Yevon, helpless and unconscious at her feet. If only she knew how to use magic other than illusion so she could help someone. But outside of the dream, she was no longer able to cast spells as a Fayth. She was just Kaila once more.

"Wake up!" she called out to Baralai. "Wake up and get out of here! Your life is in danger!" When he didn't hear her, she tried to grab his overcoat and shake him; but her immaterial substance met no resistance, and her hands went right through him. If talking to him and grabbing him didn't work, what else could she do?

))((

Baralai's eyes opened with a start as he was pounced by a bright swarm of urgent pyreflies in his face. Sitting up, he backed away from the pyreflies and clutched his ribs, wondering where he was for a moment before it all came back to him. Then, his dark eyes narrowed with mistrust. "Nooj."

The praetor looked up through the darkness above. A battle was going on above him. Nooj and Gippal? No. Female voices … The Gullwings. With so many possible thieves invading the temple's lower levels, he decided there was only one way to clean them out. Standing and limping toward the exit, Baralai determined to send the warrior monks on a dungeon sweep. He had to protect Vegnagun from Nooj … and anyone else who sought to get their grubby hands on it. But the security wards in the machina's chamber had been tripped and it had escaped, so first, he had to find it.

))((

Since Yuna was wearing Lenne's dress sphere, Lenne was alert through the entire battle with the black dragon aeon. Being a former summoner herself, she knew what this creature was, even if she did not know it by name. But she was astonished that it would attack them like this, especially considering that Yuna had been a summoner, too. _"Aeons don't attack out of spite_," Lenne tried to remind her. _"He must be guarding something. The machina you seek, it must be down there. You can come back for it later when he is banished."_

Yuna was thrown against the wall and shook her head to try to stay alert. The fight wasn't going so well. "Aeons don't attack out of spite!" she told her friends. "What's happened to him? Bahamut, please stop!"

Lenne's spirit froze with a chill. _"Bahamut?_" It couldn't be. Who would turn a little boy into a Fayth? Besides, she had left him in the safety of the Ronso caverns. But she suspected she knew who had turned him, and thanks to her unintended imprisonment and conversation with Maester Renuta, she knew how and why. Her soul cried out in anguish. _"Bahamut, can you hear me? Yuna! Please do something to let me speak to my brother! You have to let me talk to him!"_

Yuna looked down at her dress sphere grid. The gunner outfit wasn't working on this incredibly strong perversion of one of her favorite aeons. Maybe if … Perhaps … She touched the singer sphere.

Lenne felt the magic of her sphere activate and fold around Yuna until the High Summoner was wearing a fortified version of Lenne's own dress. _"Oh, Bahamut,"_ she cried, _"What did I let them do to you? I am so sorry! Rest! Please rest. This world's problems are not yours any more." _In her lament, she tried to give Yuna a song. As the High Summoner sang, the black dragon slowed and stopped attacking to listen. The magic of the song silenced his spells, but the words of the song stunned him into submission. Lenne knew why, even if no one else did. That song was one that her brother always requested at her concerts.

As Yuna sang, the magic of the dress sphere began to put the dragon to sleep. Paine delivered the final offensive strike, and the tainted aeon banished in a swirl of shimmering pyreflies. When the song ended, Rikku and Paine both looked to Yuna in mute surprise. The summoner wiped a tear from her eye.

"Well, you know what they say about music soothing the savage beast," Paine spoke.

"Where did you get that song?" Rikku asked, somewhat awed at its unusual effect on the aeon.

"I … don't know. It just kind of … came to me," Yuna answered. "I'm so sorry," she apologized, hoping he heard her. Then, she took her dress sphere and changed back to her gunner outfit before falling to her knees and looking into the empty hole where Dark Bahamut had come from.

Lenne could sense and understand Yuna's confusion, fear, and frustration at seeing what had become of her aeon friend. She could offer no consolation or answers, but she could finally mourn the loss of her little brother.

))((

When Shuyin returned to the Youth League's headquarters, he allowed Nooj to contact Gippal and Baralai and arrange a meeting to discuss what he had on his mind. Nooj decided he was going to apologize and explain everything, but then speak to them concerning what should be done about Vegnagun. It couldn't be allowed to stay hidden under Bevelle in the hands of New Yevon. It needed to be destroyed.

But, as the three Crimson Squad survivors came together inside the chamber where Vegnagun used to be, the Gullwings, hidden behind the doorway, eavesdropped on their conversation.

"So, why are we here?" Gippal asked.

"There's something I needed to be sure of," Baralai spoke before Nooj could confess. "Vegnagun is gone."

"Listen to you," Nooj answered. "'Vegnagun is gone.' Are you trying to tell us that since that thing left on its own, Yevon's not to blame?"

"It's the truth," Baralai admitted. "The thing's more sensitive than its size would lead one to believe. It detects hostility, and in an instant, springs to life. Should one even think of harming it, it awakens like a frightened child."

"Hah. You did your homework," Nooj answered.

"I've had two years."

"Wait. So, you're saying that Vegnagun woke up because someone was trying to destroy it? Who?" Gippal began to aimlessly pace.

"Who indeed. I'm a little confused." Baralai looked to Nooj. "You came to claim it for yourself, didn't you? But Vegnagun awoke. Why? Because deep down you hated it. Did you come here to use it, or destroy it? Well?"

Nooj walked to the edge of the platform where Vegnagun once sat and looked over the edge into the pyrefly-infested pit of darkness beneath them. He considered his answer carefully before giving it. "Both," he frankly answered. "You probably think that's impossible. You've always been too naïve to see. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"Then, I hope you don't expect me to trust you, either." As if contradicting himself, Baralai turned his back on Nooj and walked a few paces away from him. "I believed in you once, when we were training for the Crimson Squad. I thought I'd never find a better friend." Baralai closed his eyes, trying not to let emotion rule over logic. "But you betrayed that, ... two years ago." The praetor whipped out a gun and aimed it at Nooj.

"Baralai!" Gippal called him down for threatening gesture.

Behind the doorway, Paine's hands clenched into fists and she almost barged into the room to disarm him herself, but Yuna, crouched near her legs, caught hold of her knee and shook her head. Putting a finger to her lips she reminded Paine to remain here until they could find out what was going on. Paine's lips tightened in a straight line, but she held her ground and looked back to her friends conversation.

"Why did you shoot?" Baralai angrily demanded of Nooj. "Why did you shoot Gippal and me? We were friends, and you shot us in the back!"

Nooj was cold and silent as he met his gaze, though the gun was only inches from his face.

"Answer me!"

"Just calm down!" Gippal tried to prevent something horrible from happening between them again. "Nooj! Apologize already!" But Nooj wouldn't answer. "That's enough!" But Baralai wouldn't lower his gun. "Don't push me ..." Gippal warned, pulled out his own gun, and raised it to Baralai's forehead. "If this is what it takes …"

Again, Paine fought the urge to interrupt the argument before it turned bloody, but this time Rikku blocked her. "Wait, did you see that?" she whispered and pointed.

Nooj's body glowed as pyreflies began to pull away from him. In spite of his machina leg, he stiffened and dropped his cane, as if no longer needing it. "This has turned out perfectly, wouldn't you agree? Yes, I shot you." Nooj pulled his gun and aimed it at Gippal. "You were easy targets - you and Paine."

Behind the doorway, Paine's eyes widened at the change that came over the half-machina man as he spoke. "That's not Nooj," she whispered to Yuna and Rikku. "Nooj wouldn't say something like that."

"You shot Paine, too?" Gippal couldn't believe it.

"Why?" Baralai needed answers.

Nooj laughed – a slow, cynical laugh.

"Answer me!" Baralai demanded.

Nooj's body shimmered with magical colors again, but this time his voice changed and another voice could be heard layered over his own. "I made him do it. He was too weak to resist me."

From the doorway, Yuna and Rikku at each other. "There it goes again," Rikku whispered. "Did you see it?"

"Definitely not Nooj," Paine whispered again, frowning at her own inability to figure out this bewildering situation.

"Nooj?" Gippal apparently noticed the shimmer and voice change, too.

"I don't expect you to present any more of a challenge. Not now." Nooj's body shimmered once more, and then Shuyin's unsent spirit left the half-machina body to enter the praetor's. A gust of wind seemed to hit Baralai, and he struggled to speak, but he almost seemed to be choking on something.

Behind the doorway, Rikku gasped, but then quickly covered her mouth to avoid being heard.

Nooj fell to the floor and gasped for air as if he were coming out of water for the first time in a long time. Baralai stabilized, but his body shimmered and pyreflies floated around him after the exchange as Shuyin continued to speak using his own voice over Baralai's. "See, I found that the mind that hates and despairs is the easiest to break. Two years ago, it was the same with you, Nooj, ... seeking your own death. Now you can have it." Baralai clicked the hammer on his revolver, preparing to fire.

"Wait!" Gippal tried to stop him.

Unable to stand this weird, paranoid mania any longer, Paine jumped out of the shadows and ran toward them. "Stop!" Rikku and Yuna were right behind her.

"Paine, get out of here!" Nooj shouted in warning, but it wasn't just the threat of their standoff that worried him.

Yuna turned to see that the noise of their argument had attracted the attention of a fiend – a very large Marlboro was scaling down the wall behind the girls, eager to join them.

))((

Shuyin had not expected the Gullwings to show up again in the dungeons beneath Bevelle. Surely Yuna had not defeated all of her former aeons in those fiend-stricken villages yet, … unless she had help. The High Summoner's persistence had definitely become annoying, but she was the least of his problems at the moment. Gippal's gun was poised to kill his best chance at reprogramming Vegnagun, and the Marlboro's many tentacles were advancing quickly. Shuyin decided to use its appearance to escape.

Nooj and Gippal took off after him, leaving the Gullwings to deal with the monster.

As he ran, Shuyin searched Baralai's knowledge of the dungeons under Bevelle and used his sense of direction to lose the others in the labyrinth before ducking into Bahamut's Chamber of the Fayth and leaping down the hole into the Farplane once more. If it had only been that easy when he and Lenne were trying to escape.


	41. Chapter 41: The Farplane

Chapter 41: Farplane

Yuna had not planned on jumping into the dark hole where Ixion's Fayth should have been. As she looked down into it, she had been thinking a dark hole with that kind of depth seemed to hold all the secrets in the world – secrets she was not meant to know. Then, an unexpected blast after the battle with the resurrected aeon had thrown her off-balance. As she fell into the pyrefly-infested abyss, she thought she heard Paine and Rikku call out to her, but she couldn't answer. It was so dark, but then ... so bright. Opening her eyes, she saw that she wasn't falling down, as much as she was floating down, and her fear of whatever was at the bottom of the dark hole faded into a feeling of comfort and peace. Had she … died?

As she fell, she thought she heard a voice – _his_ voice. She thought she answered him, but when she looked around anxious to find him, he was nowhere to be seen in the bright light. She thought she was lying on a soft bed of flowers when she opened her eyes. Had she just dreamed it? She was now wearing her singer sphere without having activated it. Slowly, she sat up, and then stood to look around in wonder at the mystical place she suddenly found herself in. A gentle breeze touched her as pyreflies burst out of her shimmering dress sphere and swirled around her in excitement, but she barely had time to question what was happening when she noticed a shadowed figure approaching through the mist. Yuna felt her heart skip a beat and held her breath as he approached, but she was afraid to get her hopes up before she was certain.

))((

Lenne had watched the entire battle with Ixion hoping Yuna would activate her dress sphere. Familiarity wouldn't help with this Fayth like it had with Bahamut, but she understood Yuna's confusion and sorrow in wondering what had corrupted multiple aeons like that. Afraid to stray beyond her singer sphere because of such corruption, Lenne's soul remained quiet while Yuna used her gunner sphere. When Yuna fell into the hole, however, Lenne feared for the other summoner's life and immediately reached beyond her dress sphere to summon a slow spell from the thick cloud of magical pyreflies surrounding them.

Yuna was unconscious, so Lenne overrode the sphere grid to her singer sphere and continued to guide the other summoner gently toward the bottom of the dark pit. The bottom of the hole was not completely made of machina like the upper portion, but she had never been further down into the colony ship than Bevelle's dungeons, so she didn't know what to expect at these depths. She was surprised to see what appeared to be a magical meadow, bordered by misty waterfalls and carpeted by moon flowers, overlooking an odd valley of more of the same. Pyreflies floated lazily above the flowers where Yuna's body finally came to rest, and Lenne fought an overwhelming urge to release the human, and the dress sphere, to sleep. Was this … the Farplane?

Lenne thought she heard a voice – _his_ voice. She thought she answered him, but when she looked around anxious to find him, he was nowhere to be seen in the field of flowers. Was he really here somewhere? A gentle breeze passed through her and her dress shimmered with more pyreflies as she, again, debated leaving the safety of her sphere, but she barely had time to question what was happening when she noticed a shadowed figure approaching through the mist. Lenne felt her heart skip a beat and held her breath as he approached, but she was afraid to let go of Yuna until she was certain.

))((

In Baralai's body, Shuyin had full access to all of the temple, but he used his new identity for only one purpose – finding Vegnagun. When he finally located it hiding in the Heart of the Farplane, the machina was still unreasonably skittish and paranoid about Nooj seeking to destroy it. Baralai would have been better at talking some sense into it, but because he had revealed himself to Baralai before his possession, he dare not let the praetor act on his own now. He held iron control over Baralai's mind, compared to his occasional interferences with Nooj, so Shuyin had to win Vegnagun's confidence back on his own merits before he could get close to it again. This would be his third time trying to approach the thing.

But as he passed through the Farplane's Abyss toward the vortex into the Heart, he spotted an unconscious woman lying among the flowers and stopped behind the mist before he could be seen. "High Summoner Yuna?" What was she doing down here? His teeth clenched in anger, and he nearly marched forward to rid himself of her once and for all, since she appeared to be alone, but he stopped when he noticed what she was wearing. What was she doing wearing _Lenne's_ dress? There was a small cluster of pyreflies hovering near her. Had Lenne found refuge in Yuna the same way he found shelter in Baralai?

Shuyin swallowed hard as his breath quickened. Instead of wanting to rush out there to kill her, now he wanted to rush out there and scoop her into his arms. He could feel hope surging, but he didn't want to be disappointed and sent if he was wrong. Calming himself, he tempered his urge to rush anywhere and reached into the summoner's mind with his magic. "_Can you hear me?"_

_"Yes."_ Though Yuna was still lying unconscious among the flowers, the subconscious part of the mind was always open, especially to dreams.

_"Ah, you can hear me." _Shuyin was pleased his attempt to contact her subconscious without waking her had worked.

_"I can't see you. Where are you?"_ she asked. It wasn't a complaint. It was a plea.

Was it because Lenne was searching for him? Or was it because Yuna was searching for someone who looked like him? That dress … Shuyin decided Lenne _had_ to be with her somehow, and felt it was worth the risk to reveal his presence. But since Yuna was present, he remained cautious. He had to do this in a way that would allow him to stay safe within Baralai's body, but allow Lenne to see his true form. _"Right here,"_ he assured her as Baralai approached her unconscious body and crouched at her side. Lifting her gently into his arms, Shuyin cast another spell – one that projected a dream image of this place and an illusion of his own appearance into her subconscious.

In Yuna's dream, as she stood to look for him, he took note of the burst of pyreflies that came from that dress. He had waited so patiently for Lenne. He couldn't believe he may have finally found her. Shuyin left the mists and crossed the bed of flowers. Stopping a short distance from her, he allowed himself to smile. "_We've finally met, haven't we?_" His brows came together with a hint of worry as he questioned her. He was almost afraid to hear her answer. (1)

Yuna looked uncertain as well. "_Is it ... really you?_"

He could tell that she was teetering on the edge of hope like himself. "_It's me. Shuyin,_" he confirmed. "_I've always been waiting for you, … Lenne,_" he reassured her.

Hope crashed. Confused and insulted, Yuna promptly turned her back to him. "_I'm not Lenne_."

Shuyin's brows rose with uncertainty again. Maybe Lenne wasn't answering him because she was angry at his absence. "_Ne, Lenne ... Even though we disappeared together, as a couple, I woke alone. Alone, I searched for you,_" he explained as he strode toward her at an easy pace. "_But in wandering, I've realized ... Spira, the cycle, ... it hasn't changed._" His eyes shifted toward the world above. "_Same as ever, they die quarreling over insignificant things. After more than a thousand years, they don't trust. They're still hateful. Therefore, they punished each other - did a cleansing. Also, this good-for-nothing Spira didn't take you seriously - me, either._ _With Vegnagun, I'll get rid of all that and make it disappear,"_ he promised with a clenched fist, but held his anger in check. _"Then once more, as a couple, we can fade._" Standing directly behind her now, he stopped. "_Lend me your strength, ... Lenne._" He smiled with hope once more and touched her shoulder.

_What a disaster! _Yuna's worried, transparent thoughts came through to him.

Shuyin struggled to stay in control of his emotions. He didn't care what Yuna thought. Determined to reach Lenne, he surprised Yuna by turning her around to face him and drawing her to his chest. Yuna couldn't bring herself to return the gesture, but as soon as he embraced her, Shuyin could feel the pyreflies burst from her dress again. He could feel Lenne's presence trying to reach out to him.

Unable to distinguish Lenne's feelings from her own, Yuna was now even more confused. _What's come over me?_

Holding Lenne for the first time in a thousand years, Shuyin was ashamed for her to see the depths of despair he had fallen into during his isolation, but hopeful that he would be forgiven for his failures. After a moment, he pulled away and looked into her eyes, hoping to see someone familiar, but Yuna only mirrored his desire to see someone else.

_Hey, … whose feelings are these?_ She let him draw her back into his arms. _Lenne?_ That name again … Feeling oddly comforted by his presence, Yuna closed her eyes and let her forehead rest against his cheek.

With a sigh, Shuyin closed his eyes and tried to enjoy the moment while it lasted, but he wondered why Lenne refused to let go of Yuna to be with him. The despair that had infected him for so long over the centuries still gnawed at him. Maybe Lenne had not come to see him. Maybe she had come with Yuna to stop him, just like everyone else. Maybe the one hope that had kept him going for a thousand years had been for nothing. Shuyin was devastated, but he refused to let it show.

Someone shouted for Yuna to open her eyes.

Shuyin reluctantly released her and allowed his illusion to revert back to Baralai's form. Yuna dropped to her knees, limp and groggy as Lenne's dress sphere deactivated back to the gunner outfit. Shuyin felt numb now as he cast a cold gaze down at the summoner and walked away from her.

Nooj and Gippal drew near trying to wake the summoner from her dream.

"_The end is not far now,_" Shuyin told them, his own voice layered over Baralai's. Then, he drew a portal through the dream and the Farplane and left them to find Vegnagun once more.

))((

When Yuna woke, some spheres for Paine that Gippal and Nooj handed her in the dream were beside her. They had followed Shuyin through the vortex, so now she was alone. And the beautiful Farplane meadow she had once been in was now dark, cold, and barren. Yuna was at a loss for understanding what had just happened to her. How had Tidus turned into Shuyin? Why had Shuyin turned into Baralai? What were Gippal and Nooj doing down here? And _who the heck was Lenne_? Frustrated, angry, and scared, Yuna ran aimlessly across the dark plane, and when seeking a way out failed, she broke down and yelled at the top of her lungs for help. She didn't notice the handful of pyreflies that hovered near lighting her path, refusing to leave her side.

))((

Lord Braska's rest had been disturbed the moment his daughter entered the Farplane. My how she had grown since he last saw her. He had observed her whole ordeal without interfering, but none of the three humans that paused to help actually helped her. Now she was trapped alone in the Farplane with no easy way out.

He noticed the pyreflies hovering near her, even if she did not. The summoner decided to help his daughter in a way that would also hopefully cheer her a little. Summoning some of those pyreflies near her together with a few more gave them a slightly more cohesive, ghost-like, form. "_Lead her away from this place_," he instructed his creation_. "The chambers of the Fayth are quite dangerous right now with the dark aeons out there waiting for her, but I know that you will keep her safe, and … she needs you."_

The barely-there spirit didn't need to be told twice. Heading in the direction that he wanted her to go, the loose collection of memories released one for her – a whistle.

Yuna abruptly lifted her chin and stood. There was no mistaking that sound. "Where are you?"

The thin ghost whistled again, waited to be seen, and then led the way toward the safest exit.

"Wait!" Yuna ran him.

Her father smiled to himself. _"Go in peace, my dear. It is not your time to join us, yet."_

))((

When Yuna reached the top of the stairway of pyreflies, she woke to find herself in the chamber that once housed Vegnagun. When the crew of the Gullwings was finally able to contact her via com sphere, she was teleported back onto the airship. They had all been worried about her, of course, and they were curious about what had happened. Yuna did her best to try to explain the strange experience, though she was still unsure whether parts of it were real, or only a dream.

Pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place now, though. Shinra informed her that Lenne was the name of the girl in the dress sphere. Since Shuyin thought Yuna was Lenne, they suspected it was because of the dress sphere. And though she was terribly disappointed, Yuna now realized the young man she had been hunting in those ancient spheres was him, not Tidus.

Later, when she went looking for Paine to pass along the memory spheres Gippal and Nooj had given her, Rikku stopped her in the hall. "Yunie! Yunie!"

"Yeah?"

"You met Shuyin, right? Was he anything like you-know-who?" Rikku asked with a grin.

Yuna didn't feel much like talking about it beyond the basic details she'd already told them. She didn't want to linger on how comforting it felt to be near him, or how confusing it was to look into his eyes but see someone else. She missed Tidus so much, she had been willing to pretend Shuyin was him for just a few minutes. She didn't want to admit how much it hurt when he mentioned that he had _always_ been waiting for her, but then called her by another name. _Always …_ That had been Tidus's promise to her. How could Shuyin be so much like him, and yet be nothing like him? Yuna shook her head in answer to the younger girl's curiosity. "Not really. Just his face." Hoping that was a good enough answer, she stepped into the lift, closed the doors, and touched the button for the top deck.

))((

Secluded and sulking in her dress sphere, Lenne's spirit had listened to the Gullwings theorize about the connection between her dress sphere and Shuyin, but her thoughts were far away. She wondered if she did the right thing by not letting go of Yuna, so she could talk to him. But letting go would have locked Lenne into the Farplane, and she couldn't help him if she was trapped in there.

She had been so happy to see Shuyin again – to hear his voice, see his smile, and be close to him once more. But it hurt so much to see what had happened to him. All those years of being unsent had poisoned his heart with bitterness. Now all he wanted was revenge, … just like any other fiend.

She wished she could have told him why she didn't want to fade. She did want to be with him again, … but not like this. This disillusioned soul wasn't _her_ Shuyin. His compassion and hope had been replaced by despair and magic strong enough to conjure dreams and possess minds. It was hard to admit, but Shuyin was dangerous now. She knew that someone had to stop him before it was too late, and she was afraid the the Gullwings were going to do just that. She needed to stay close to them. If Yuna knew the whole story, maybe she could protect Spira from that machina, while also protecting Shuyin from himself.

Lenne chose Yuna's concert in the Thunder Plains to try to communicate with her again. Since Yuna had activated Lenne's dress sphere for the concert, Lenne decided to give her another song. As she sang with Yuna, the dress sphere reacted with the com spheres on the airship and the electricity in the sky, and soon everyone watching the concert was able to witness Lenne's memories of her final moments with Shuyin. Yuna was heartbroken for them by the time the song ended, but now she understood her earlier nightmare. And after the concert, an old man named Maechen, whom Lenne remembered meeting at one of her own concerts, stopped by the airship to share more details of their tragic story against the backdrop of the Machina War. Then, realizing that he, too, was unsent, he voluntarily departed for the Farplane.

"I think I can kinda understand how he felt, ... trying so hard to save someone," Rikku admitted after Maechen left. "Two years ago, I was the same, trying to find some way, ... some way to save you," she told Yuna.

"That was enough, knowing that you were on my side. I'll always be grateful to you."

"Maybe Lenne felt the same way," Paine suggested. "The man she loved, … he struggled to save her. He fought till his very last breath for her. I think that Lenne's final words might have been happy ones: 'I love you.'"

"Yes," Yuna agreed. "There is a connection. But wait. Everything is all wrong. He never heard. The one person she wanted to tell ... He never heard her words."

Inside her dress sphere, Lenne sighed with relief. The Gullwings were finally able to understand all that happened to her and Shuyin. Now, they just had to figure out what to do about it.

))((

"Well?" Brother asked as he followed Rikku, Paine, and Yuna into the cabin.

"Well?" Paine repeated, unenthusiastic about answering his interrogation.

"What did you find in the Den of Woe?" he persisted.

"Mish Yoona. Mish Rikkoo, Mish Paine ..." The blue, frog-like hypello behind the bar greeted them from behind the counter. "Yoo look too tired. Would yoo like shomething to eat?"

"Ice cream, please," Rikku announced, sitting down at the counter. "_Lots_ of it."

"Uh oh." Buddy sat down next to her. "It was an ice cream experience, huh?"

"And how." Rikku groaned in exhaustion, dropping her forehead on the counter.

"Chocolate has chemicals in it that can be mood enhancing," Shinra told Barkeep as he climbed on the stool next to Buddy. "I think they need some chocolate."

Yuna gave the boy a wan smile for his thinly disguised ploy to get his favorite flavor. "Chocolate's fine," she told the hypello as she sat down with her crew mates for a rare off-moment in their hectic travels. As she waited for her ice cream to be served, Yuna looked to Paine, who sat in silent contemplation of a napkin.

"So what _happened_?" Brother asked again, sounding as if he was going to pop an artery.

Paine didn't look like she was in the mood to talk about it, so Yuna chose to do the explaining to the rest of the crew. "The sphere collection unlocked the door, just as we suspected. The cavern was completely empty, though. There was no Vegnagun, and someone had cleaned up the bodies to hide the evidence of what had happened there. The only thing left was a lot of pyreflies and Shuyin's memories. We saw … everything."

"Shuyin's memories of his attempt to control Vegnagun possessed Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai. The despair was so great that they tried to kill each other." Paine tried to sound objective, in spite of how hard it had been to witness it. "That's what happened to the whole Crimson Squad. That's why Kinoc tried to execute the survivors. They saw a machina they weren't supposed to see."

"How do you know they weren't trying to kill Shuyin?" Buddy asked.

"Because those memories tried to possess us, too, making us fight each other."

The hypello returned with some large bowls of ice cream and spoons, then set his chin in his frog-fingered hand to listen to their conversation.

Brother leaned on the counter and lowered his voice to Yuna. "Did you get to beat up Rikku?"

Rikku's mouth was already too full of ice cream to say anything back, but she frowned at her sibling, reached for one of his suspenders, and snapped it against his bare back, making him yelp.

"Wait a minute," Buddy interrupted. "What was Shuyin doing in a remote cave? I thought you said he was in the Farplane."

Yuna dug halfheartedly at her ice cream before scooping a bite and then sucking it off of her spoon. "I think it was just his feelings and memories well-preserved in the pyreflies, … like what we experienced in Zanarkand, only more intense. He said the pyreflies made him live those memories over and over, and he thought I was Lenne again, but his responses were rather … shallow. You know? He didn't interact like a real person. He was pure fiend. The Shuyin in the Farplane felt much more sincere."

"Do you think maybe that's where he was buried?"

Yuna shook her head. "Perhaps in the sense that his spirit was locked away in the cavern for so long, but according to the spheres and their memories, Shuyin died in Bevelle. I can't imagine why they would bury him so far away, under such high security, and in a separate place from Lenne. I mean, she's here with us – with me – in my dress sphere. I think they're buried closer to Bevelle, but somehow they got separated. I don't think Shuyin was locked in that cavern until after he was unsent. The lock on that door isn't something you'd find on an ordinary tomb, and he's not an ordinary spirit. But he must have been locked in there for a very long time to have such tangible memories in the pyreflies. I can't imagine it."

Buddy wanted to make sure he understood. "So, the Shuyin in the den was just an illusion, while the real one is going for Vegnagun?"

"If that had been the real Shuyin in the cavern, he wouldn't have been released until we opened the door, ... just now," Paine answered, poking at her ice cream, but not eating it. "The real Shuyin must have escaped two years ago by possessing Nooj during the Crimson Squad trial. That would explain why Nooj shot us. Shuyin made him do it."

"But earlier when we were under Bevelle, a strange burst of pyreflies whooshed from Nooj into Baralai," Rikku spoke over her mouthful. "That would explain why Yunie saw Baralai as Shuyin in the Farplane." The small thief winced and squeezed her head between her palms. "Ugh. Brain freeze."

"We already talked about this outside of the cavern, but we think Shuyin's possessed Baralai to have better access to Vegnagun," Paine explained to the rest of the crew. "We have to stop him."

Yuna ate some more of her ice cream, but Paine's tone troubled her. "What about Baralai?"

The torn warrior woman looked at the summoner. "If you can think of a way to destroy Shuyin without harming Baralai, I'm all ears."

Yuna made a drinking gesture to Barkeep in request for some water, then put her palms together with a small bow of thanks when he went to get it for her. "Well, … um, …"

Rikku scooped out the last servings of ice cream from her bowl. "You know, Shuyin sounds kinda romantically demented. If he thinks you're Lenne, maybe you could lure him out of Baralai by pretending to be her."

Paine cut the thief a side glance. "'Romantically demented?'" Unable to enjoy her ice cream at all, she pushed her bowl toward Shinra, who had been staring at her uneaten portion as a waste. The whiz kid eagerly removed his face mask and goggles to accept the offer.

Yuna wasn't sure what she thought of Rikku's plan. "Well, he did hug me in the Farplane," she admitted. "But you should have seen the look in his eyes. It would be cruel to trick him like that, don't you think?"

"After everything he's done?" Paine couldn't believe Yuna was defending him. "I can sympathize with Lenne, but I don't think I can _ever_ forgive Shuyin. He _used_ us. He tried to _kill_ us. He killed all those people during the training exercises, too, and now he's threatening to obliterate Spira. In spite of how he looks, he's not your boyfriend, Yuna. He's a fiend – a powerful, dangerous, ancient, _unsent fiend_." Upset, Paine stood and walked away.

Hearing the bathroom door shut, Yuna understood her friend's anger, but she wasn't sure seeking revenge against Shuyin was the solution. Shuyin had lasted a thousand years feeding on revenge in people like Nooj and Baralai. He could just as easily take Paine next, at this rate. Perhaps Yuna's feelings for Tidus were muddling her decisions about this, but she knew Lenne had shown her those visions in hopes that they could find a way to help Shuyin, … not destroy him.

"Yunie, do you think there's still a chance Shuyin is connected to Tidus in some way?"

With a defeated sigh, Yuna quieted and cut semi-circles with her spoon in the melting mound of chocolate left in her bowl. "I don't think so, Rikku. If there is a connection, I certainly don't get it."

"But they're both from the same place and time. And they look so much alike. Maybe they're distant relatives, or even brothers," Rikku suggested.

"Tidus never mentioned having a brother."

"Well, maybe Tidus just didn't like him. I don't like my brother, so I wouldn't mention him to anyone, if I didn't have to."

Brother's blond brows furrowed and a snarl came from his throat. "Tidus is a nothing. You should not be concerned about Tidus. He is gone. Shuyin is the one putting Spira in danger."

Rikku sat up straight and smacked the back of her brother's head. "Don't you talk like that about him around Yunie!"

"Rikku, it's okay. Brother's right." Sad, but trying to be reasonable, Yuna pushed her half-empty bowl away and took a drink from Barkeep's offered glass of water to wash away the sweetness of the ice cream. "Tidus came from the Fayth's dream. He will never be found in any spheres we dig up in the real world because he wasn't real. We should go help Nooj and Gippal free Baralai."

Setting down the glass, Yuna went upstairs and lay down on her bed to rest for a few minutes before trying to find the Farplane again. If she could talk to Shuyin, instead of fighting him, what would she say? If she were in Lenne's place … Yuna pulled out her dress sphere grid and stared at it. "I know you must miss him terribly. I know how that feels. We will do what we can to bring him back to you. I promise."

Thinking of the thin assembly of pyreflies that led her out of the Farplane, Yuna regretted not being able to speak to that ghost the way she had been able to speak with Shuyin. Maybe when all of this was over, she should try looking for Tidus there. Setting her dress sphere on her bed, she knelt at her dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. She started to reach for the sphere within the keepsake chest. Then, she changed her mind and slowly closed the drawer. She could not be thinking of Tidus while confronting Shuyin, or she would never be able to send him. Or maybe it was just time that she stopped living in the past. Standing, Yuna picked up her grid again and went back downstairs.

))((

Inside the Heart of the Farplane, Shuyin scanned the machina and circuitry workings in the dome, walls, and pathways of the colony ship. He had to give reluctant credit to Spira for continuing to stay afloat in space after all this time, but his admiration of the ship's age wasn't enough to make up for the multitude of sins of her inhabitants. And now, Yuna had poisoned Lenne against him. There was only one thing left to do - end existence itself.

As he approached the top of the multi-level platform in the center of the Heart, Shuyin lifted his gaze to the intelligent weapon perched above him. He had been talking to it often, winning its confidence over little by little, and though it usually flew away when he came this close, this time, it remained. Pausing before its large, skull-like head, Shuyin ran an appreciative hand over one of the long tusks. The machina did not pull back from his touch. It was willing to trust him as Baralai now.

Shuyin approached the locked doors of the gun barrel entrance once more and touched the panel near the doors. To his surprise, they opened. Pleased with finally making progress on this endeavor, he ducked under the gun barrel to climb the ladder to the control center on top of the construction's head. He had only visited this control panel twice, but because he had been forced to relive the moments of dying in front of the weapon thousands of times, he felt as if he knew it by heart. Running a hand gently over the keyboard, he smiled as it automatically lit at his touch. The weapon seemed to be able to read his mind once more. Pulling out the chair, Shuyin seated himself. "It's good to see you've finally calmed down."

"Calm. No hostility detected. Defense mode on stand down," the almost human, yet somewhat tin-quality, voice spoke from the control panel.

"That's right because I'm not here to hurt you, Vegnagun. I need your help. See, I get it now. Peaceful people just want to be left to live in peace - on a little island, with beach-front homes, and pet monkeys. That's all Lenne and I wanted." He smiled lightly at the sad memory. "But sometimes, even peaceful people have to choose between killing or being killed. That's why machina like you were made to help people like us keep the peace."

"Praetor Baralai?"

Shuyin blinked at the unexpected address, but continued the charade. "Yes?"

"Accessing archived files. Directive Prisoner Lenne was marked for protection, but terminated. Please indicate whether this is the _same_ directive, or if I should start a _new_ one."

Shuyin paused, stunned. It remembered Lenne from all those years ago? Maybe he was going about this all wrong, disguising himself as Nooj and Baralai. Closing his eyes, he summoned pyreflies into an apparition resembling his true form over Baralai's body - thin, so that Baralai could still be seen underneath, ... just in case. "Prisoner Lenne doesn't want to be protected anymore, Vegnagun. She's with High Summoner Yuna now, who is trying to stop me from the bringing the only true Calm that Spira will ever know." He could hear and see the computer's cameras twitching and scanning him.

"Operator identification updated. Prisoner Shuyin confirmed, but was also terminated. Is there an error?"

Shuyin snorted at the machina's assessment of his execution. "A big error, Vegnagun. Lenne and I should never have been terminated. We should never have even been in that war."

"You continue to function outside of your biological termination?"

Spirits were obviously not part of the standard programming for war machina, yet its AI seemed to be seeking more data. "Depends on what you mean by function," Shuyin honestly answered. "I'm cold now, ... empty, ... endless."

"Cold. Regulation of temperature is functionally operational. To increase or decrease and state numerical value."

He smiled lightly at the machina's inability to comprehend human feelings. "Not that kind of cold. Cold as in unplugged, or unused. Sort of like what the temple did to you. We were both locked away for a thousand years - forgotten. How did that make you feel? Did you like that?"

The machina was computing a quest for these words "like" and "feel". "I do not have sensory nerves. I have sensors that detect targeted objects, motion, light, and immediate hazards."

"Didn't it make you angry?"

"No present hostility detected."

"No, I mean … What did you think about or do while you were locked away all that time?"

"Nothing. All systems off-line with defense mode on stand by for immediate hazards." Vegnagun paused, as if processing. "Forgotten, … empty."

Shuyin felt better knowing _something_ understood him, even if it was a machine. But with a sigh, he shook his head and continued with his purpose for being there. "Reinstate my former program please, but this time the target is the Heart of the Farplane. You're just going to fire into those lights overhead." He looked up at the shimmering waves of magical color that danced across the Farplane's canopy.

"Destroying the Farplane will destroy the ship. Destroying the ship will destroy Vegnagun."

Shuyin knew that if the machina felt it was in danger, he could have just jeopardized the entire plan. "No. When everything disappears, Vegnagun will have peace. No one will ever try to destroy Vegnagun again." Then, Shuyin leaned forward to the camera focused on him, and his eyes narrowed. "But High Summoner Yuna is probably on her way. She's the one who wants to destroy you. She and her friends will probably stop at nothing to prevent us from bringing peace to Spira."

There was a moment of silence while the machina contemplated its collective data. Then, the command screens lit up. "Former program reinstated. Farplane target locked. Commencing initiation of energy charge system. Please confirm by copying the code sequence in music notation format."

Shuyin sighed with relief and placed his hands - Baralai's hands - over the keyboard. Then, he began to play.

))((

Yuna returned to the treacherous, winding paths of the outer Farplane beneath the tombs of the Fayth, but this time Rikku and Paine accompanied her. As they fought their way past more tainted aeons and fiends heading toward the Abyss, Yuna realized this must have been the same path that she blindly ran through following the thin spirit's whistles, and she marveled at how he managed to avoid running her into any broken pathways or incredibly strong fiends along the way. If that had been Tidus, then he was with her in this place, still watching over her. Maybe she could learn to be happy with that.

After making it through the musically secured gates going up a steep, circuited pathway, the Gullwings found Gippal sitting to the side of a stone-melded nodes that lead further up. He was heavily injured and admitted to being careless in an earlier confrontation. LeBlanc and her two henchmen, who had been waiting in the Farplane for Nooj to return, came in behind them. The Gullwings continued on, scaling the melody rocks until they carried them up to another circuited path that led into a fortified, split sphere. Inside the sphere, above many suspended, petrified platforms, Vegnagun could be seen. The machina spotted her and trembled.

Nooj was already standing at the base of the platform directly in front of Vegnagun when the Gullwings caught up to him. He had been trying to figure out a way to spare Baralai. His plan? He was going to shoot Baralai – only wounding him, not killing him. Then Nooj, whose body was already rigged with explosives, would allow Shuyin to possess him once more and trip the trigger.

Yuna frowned. "I don't like your plan. It sucks."

Everyone turned to face her as if that was the harshest language she had ever used in her life.

She realized it probably was, but then she tried to explain why she couldn't agree with his plan. It was no different from what they had done to battle Sin. She had lost her aeons. She had lost Tidus. All for the sake of those magic words: we had no choice. She refused to repeat that regret. "I don't want friends to die, … or fade away. I don't want battles where we have to lose in order to win." This was hard to say, but she remembered how Tidus kept telling her to believe in him when she was facing her own sacrifice. Now she knew what to do. "Nooj, I know that what you say is what you mean to do. Give me your resolve. Believe in Yuna."

"So you have a plan?" he asked, waiting for someone to suggest something better.

As Gippal and LeBlanc and her goons showed up to join them, Yuna reminded everyone that Vegnagun was just a machine. If they all worked together, they could disassemble Vegnagun. The machina's terrible blue eyes glowed bright as it trembled again.

"What about Shuyin?" Nooj asked.

"Plan B!" Yuna was resolved.

"Oh?"

"Love," she answered with a smile.

Gippal mumbled something skeptical in his native Al Bhed tongue and Nooj shook his head with a mumble of his own.

"It'll work," she told them. "I've come this far to bring Lenne's feelings to Shuyin. I'm not stopping now." She was about to explain to Rikku how her plan would not trick him, but honestly tell him how Lenne felt being without him. But the ground began to shake and rumble as Vegnagun disengaged from its perch, roared in warning, and began powering its main cannon. They couldn't see Shuyin up at the top, but they could hear the command notes he was giving. Yuna hoped they weren't too late.

))((

Author's Note:

(1) I have chosen to use Japanese game dialog, rather than English, in the scene between Yuna and Shuyin, so that is why it will look different from what most readers are used to. As always, I don't claim any credits for actual game dialog, but I should note this is my own loose translation, and translations can vary when trying to make them sound more presentable than literal.

This game scene really bugged me when I was originally trying to write about it. The scenery changes in the same place without explanation. Yuna is in and out of being awake more than once. Her costume changes by itself. Lenne never shows herself as anything more than pyreflies and never says anything to him, but Shuyin never questions Yuna's presence. And I couldn't understand how Shuyin could be so laid back about finding someone he's been missing for a thousand years. I'm sure there's other possible answers, but I chose to try to make sense of it with Shuyin's ability to manipulate people's minds and by using his pov as the main angle on that scene. Hopefully I didn't lose or confuse anyone there.

One word in the Japanese version unlocked a possible answer for Shuyin's emotions for me - "zutto" ("always" or "perpetually"). This is the same word Tidus used frequently to encourage Yuna. So, to me, "Zutto matteitayo Len," feels very different from "I've waited so long, Lenne." I could imagine Yuna catching "zutto" and bursting with joy, only to come crashing down to hear it followed by another girl's name. But also, it gives Shuyin a bit more of an excuse for his emotional restraint, I think. If he's waited a long time, then his wait is over and he can get excited now. But if he's always been waiting, then he may be cautious about getting his hopes up. So, I chose to use the Japanese dialog with Shuyin's thoughts to hopefully explain why he isn't rushing into her arms and lifting her off of her feet with a bear hug, now that he's finally found her. Just my interpretation. Your mileage may vary. ^_^


	42. Chapter 42: Fade Away

Chapter 42: Fade Away

Bahamut had been keeping a distant, but diligent, eye on Shuyin's activity in the Farplane ever since he recovered from his dark aeon's banishment. He watched as the unsent spirit used the praetor's identity to cajole Vegnagun into a partnership. The machina's fear and intellect should have rejected him, but charismatic Shuyin played all the right notes to win it over to his side. The Fayth had hoped that Gippal and Nooj would be able to stop the unsent spirit, but the fiends within the vortex proved too much for them. Now Shyuin was powering the cannon of the most powerful weapon on Spira, and there seemed to be no hope left for a means to stop him. _"Oh no … Oh no, oh no!"_

The boy's spirit whisked to the meadow of moon flowers and swept low to dust pyreflies over as much of the area as he could. "Wake up! Wake up! Shuyin's activated Vegnagun! He's trying to destroy the Farplane, and if he succeeds, he'll destroy all of Spira with it! We have to find a way to stop him!"

All around the Farplane, spirits began to awaken. Dannae was among the first to become alert. "No! Why would he do such a thing? Jecht! Go talk to him! Tell him to come home and rest!"

"You know he won't listen to me," Jecht answered with equal urgency.

"He might, … if you try talking to him, rather than yelling at him," Auron inserted as he appeared among them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jecht countered. "Oh, I get it. A few minutes in a fake reality and suddenly you're a better father than me?"

"I could never fill the void, Jecht, but _-_"

"But now isn't the time to be discussing the past," Braska gently, but firmly, reprimanded both of his former guardians as he joined them.

Kaila appeared by Bahamut's side. "We have to at least try talking to him."

"No way!" the boy protested."You saw what happened the last time I tried talking to him. He turned me into a dark aeon." The other Fayth that had been victims of Shuyin's possessive magic looked at each other and nodded with a hint of hesitation, as well.

Kaila remembered the harrowing confrontation, but it gave her an idea anyway. "Lord Braska," she asked, turning to Yuna's father. "Could you could summon one of the Fayth back as a good aeon? An aeon may be the only thing that can stop him."

"I don't think that's possible," Braska answered her.

"But … Shuyin did it, and he's not even a summoner."

"He … made me attack Yuna," Bahamut admitted, lowering his gaze in shame. "I never wanted to hurt her."

"I know." Braska placed a thin hand on the boy's ghostly shoulder, but he looked more puzzled than angry. "But summoning spirits into reality involves being able to draw life from one world into another," he explained to Kaila. "Few humans are able to do it - even fewer spirits. It's not like summoning illusions within a dream, or summoning a simple fire spell. To become a summoner, I had to endure many trials and gain the trust of the soul on the other side before it could be pulled back through the plane of magic. Had the Fayth not trusted me with their souls," Braska glanced to Bahamut with a small smile, "I would not have been able to force their obedience. Shuyin shouldn't have been able to do what he did, ... unless it has something to do with the fact that, as an unsent, he exists in both the material and spirit realms at the same time. But if that was the case, other unsent souls would be able to do it, too."

Bahamut suddenly realized the answer to a question that had been plaguing him for a long time. "That's it. That's how he does it. Shuyin exists between realms, not like an unsent, … but like Sin. There's a thick, dark energy inside of him, an energy that I've only felt once before, when I accidentally touched Sin while taking Jecht into reality. If Shuyin can manipulate people's minds and summon aeons just like Yevon, maybe he somehow became tainted by Sin's toxin and absorbed Yevon's magic. That has to be what allows him to have such a firm grip on reality without completely turning into a fiend."

"Shuyin possesses Yevon's magic?" Kaila considered this and decided it made perfect sense, but it also meant something dreadful. "Does that mean Shuyin could eventually turn into another Sin?"

"It looks like he's bent on self-destruction before that happens," Auron noted with concern. "It also means that engaging him directly in any kind of lengthy battle in order to send him could have results just as catastrophic as allowing him to take out Spira with that machina. The only defense against him one-on-one might have to be someone capable of doing possessive magic himself, ... like Yevon."

Jecht frowned with anger. "Don't tell me you're thinking of turning Yevon lose on him. 'Cause I can tell you right now that ain't gonna happen," he warned.

Bahamut didn't like that idea any more than anyone else in the circle did, but right now Shuyin posed an even bigger threat to Spira than Yevon. He was trying to think of an alternative solution when he spotted the Gullwings racing through the Farplane in pursuit of something, and he had an idea he knew what that _something_ was. "Yuna!" he blurted.

Kaila's pyreflies swirled with worry. "Oh no! She's going after him, isn't she? If Shuyin can cast Yevon's spells, she doesn't stand a chance without any aeons!"

"Wait, … she's got Lenne's spirit." Bahamut blinked and abruptly looked to other spirits with renewed confidence. "Lenne sang to me from Yuna's dress sphere."

Kaila practically read his mind. "She's going to ask Lenne to talk to him!"

"If anyone can convince Shuyin to come home, it's Lenne," he anxiously answered.

Not wasting any more time on talking about what they should do, Braska immediately sped through the ethers of the Farplane toward his daughter and stayed close behind her as she ran. Auron, Jecht, and Bahamut flew close behind them.

))((

Kaila almost joined them, but one look at Dannae's expression stopped her. All this talk about destroying an unsent fiend … This was her son. At a loss for words, Kaila drew near to Dannae and embraced her with a sympathetic and reassuring hug. She could not erase the memory of Dannae's own slow deterioration and self-destruction from her mind, so as Kaila once comforted her childhood friend in his time of need, she now tried to comfort his mom.

))((

The familiar spirits followed the Gullwings as they ran up the perilous path toward Vegnagun, and they hovered near Yuna as she and her friends debated the best way to approach the machina, … and Shuyin. Hearing her speak about the sorrow she felt after what happened two years ago, however, was humbling. Though she could not hear them, each one in turn apologized to her for their roles in following a path that they thought they had no choice in. But Tidus had taught Yuna that there was always a choice. Yuna was determined to find a way to do this without sacrificing any more friends.

Unable to physically help her and not wanting to distract her, Jecht, Braska, and Auron remained unseen, but called out battle strategies for tackling Vegnagun and cheered her on. Yuna did not seem to hear them because she did not respond to them. All the same, Bahamut thought her actions seemed guided by their encouragement and sage advice.

))((

The Gullwings and their friends split up to attack Vegnagun from different angles at the same time. As Yuna ran up the main path to break down the machina's primary functions, she recalled her fight against Yu Yevon and Sin without the Final Aeon. All she had then was the "Hymn of the Fayth", the inspiration of those who had walked that path before her, and the help of her friends. She still had those now. And if Yevon and Sin could be defeated, so could Vegnagun.

Responding to Shuyin's input in the command console and sensing their hostile intentions to take it apart, Vegnagun amped up the charge building in its proboscis-like cannon. It used its enormous tail to cast offensive magic and sweep the floating platform on which they stood. Yuna had to drop her guns to catch the edge. A fall from that steep height into the long, thin rock formations below would not only have been dizzy, it would have been deadly. After she got back on her feet, she switched to her dark knight sphere and drew Caladbolg - a prized sword Tidus left behind. Caladbolg could cut through almost anything. Paine nodded in agreement with her no-nonsense choice and switched to her own dark knight sphere. Then both of them delivered their magical weapons' strongest blows to the machina's armor and offensive nodes, while Rikku jumped in using the agility and speed of her thief sphere to slice circuits in key places. When the tail was finally taken down, they ran to help Leblanc, who was having trouble with the legs.

Leblanc and her bodyguards fled as the glowing red, green, and yellow orbs filled with offensive magic began to glow. The explosion of spells that immediately followed the warning injured all three young women rather badly. And it kept happening. No matter what they did to attack the orbs, they kept regenerating. As Rikku started to complain about the futility of their effort, and Yuna shared more healing potions, Paine noticed one orb was casting magic on itself and the other orbs. Growling through clenched teeth, the warrior woman changed into her black mage sphere and sent a blast of dark energy into the regenerative orb. With the annoying regeneration spells disabled, and Rikku and Yuna back in the fight after that, the legs were easily rendered useless.

On the next platform up on the spiraling column high above the entrance, they found Nooj, Gippal, and Leblanc attempting to take down the machina's enormous torso. They fired magic and heavy missiles at Vegnagun's head, but they were already badly injured and losing ground as Vegnagun's return fire and arms proved to be overwhelming. The Gullwings tried to help, but as soon as one of them scored a solid hit on the arm in front of her, another arm from behind would brutally push her back. Just like when they battled the legs, their efforts seemed futile until Rikku located the sensors on the arms and hit them with Darkness spells. As soon as Paine saw her strategy, she copied it. Then, Yuna used every ounce of strength she had to drive Caladbolg deep into the machina's armored chest. One arm regenerated to strike back, but Paine had already had enough frustration fighting the regenerative orbs. Changing back into her warrior sphere, she immediately took it out with one strategically placed thrust of her sword. After that, it wasn't long before Rikku had opened the rest of the machina's chest and stabbed or sliced through several primary function nodes and cables. Vegnagun's torso erupted in several mini-explosions and fell, but its head landed hard on the platform where the girls stood. When the ground stopped quaking beneath the tremendous weight of the precariously balanced, disabled machina, their other friends joined them to survey the damage. For a moment, all was quiet, and Rikku wondered aloud if they were done.

Yuna lifted her chin toward the control panel on top of the head knowing that wasn't the case. Baralai – Shuyin – was still in control. As Shuyin issued new commands, Vegnagun regenerated just enough to hold on. Still afraid of being dismantled, it clung to the side of the spiral column the way a dragonfly clings to a long, thin blade of grass that defies logic by supporting its weight. Heavily injured, it could not save itself now from a fall at that height, but it could still fight. Its skull-like, horned face roared, looking as if it might open its jaws and devour them at any moment, but then its proboscis-like cannon extended and began drawing energy for its final countdown. No longer concerned with the Gullwings, it was almost ready to engage its programmed target. Exhausted, but determined, Yuna and her friends raced up Vegnagun's arm to the flat surface at the base of its cannon.

The tusks charged with a magical blast, catching the girls by surprise, making them thankful they thought to bring lots of restorative potions. But after a few minutes of using the same strategy on the machina's tusks that they used on the arms and chest, they managed to destroy the head and disable Vegnagun's central processor, preventing the cannon from firing into the Farplane's Heart. Vegnagun was finally finished. The fight wasn't over, though, and Yuna suspected their next battle might be her most difficult one yet.

As she waited for the inevitable confrontation, Yuna changed back into her gunner sphere. "_Lenne, … what should I say to him? I feel so lost when I look into his eyes. I … I don't know if I can do this."_

Frustrated that they had destroyed the intelligent machina and interrupted his plans, Shuyin focused a scathing glare on the trio beneath him and jumped down from the controls to fight them himself.

Rikku blinked at Yuna with growing concern, and Paine was clearly on edge, ready to draw her sword and attack. But Yuna drew a sad, nervous breath and changed into Lenne's dress sphere.

The angry, unsent spirit started toward her, his transparent, true form now completely visible over Baralai's puppet-like body. But then he stopped a short distance away and tilted his chin in a skeptical stance – a stance coupled with an expression that Yuna had seen many times on Tidus's face when he spoke of something for which he felt contempt.

It nearly killed her to have him focus that look on her now. Yuna froze beneath it. _I can't do this ..._

))((

_"Yes, you can, Yuna. Yes, you can!" _Within the dress sphere, Lenne struggled and strained to break free from her sanctuary. Her magic was weak, but she had managed to summon enough pyreflies to project a weak image of herself over the singer sphere. Hopefully, it would be enough to hold off Shuyin's ire while she continued to pour the rest of her energy into breaking out and away from her self-imposed confinement.

"Shuyin," Yuna spoke, anxiously searching for the right words on her own.

"Lenne …?" Shuyin remained doubtful upon seeing her in Yuna's place.

"I want to talk to you. There's words … undelivered for a thousand years." Yuna had to pause and lower her gaze from his for a moment. No, this was coming out all wrong. (1)

"_Thank him_," Lenne begged.

"Thank you." Yuna lifted her chin to look at him again, realizing Lenne was trying to help.

"_We walked together, to the end, and … I was happy._" Lenne told her.

"We walked together, to the end, and … I was happy," Yuna repeated the spirit's words exactly.

Shuyin's angry composure softened. "But, … I couldn't handle it," he admitted his failure.

"It's okay. Please ... don't grieve alone," Yuna continued repeating Lenne's thoughts.

"Please rest," Lenne added, but this time her voice finally pushed her thoughts through the pyreflies to say it at the same time as Yuna.

Shuyin still seemed torn whether to trust Yuna or not. After a moment of difficult indecision, he drew his soul into his own apparition and released his living hostage, stepping away from him. Baralai slumped to his knees on the floor behind him, and Paine hurried to her friend to see if he was okay. Shuyin cast a brief glance behind himself at the pair, acknowledging that he had no refuge now from the strong magic of the Farplane.

Yuna sighed with relief at his willingness to surrender, but she thought he looked a little apprehensive, considering what that meant for an unsent spirit.

Lenne was relieved, too, but at the same time, her magical energy was weakening.

))((

"Can we fade now … together?" Shuyin asked, reaching out to Lenne as he moved toward her. He slowed to a stop, however, when her face and hair began to blur and distort. Lenne's illusion completely melted away, leaving him facing only Yuna once more. He'd been tricked, … and now, he was trapped. "This is wrong," he answered the betrayal with a dark glare and a frown.

"Wait!" Yuna needed a chance to explain.

"You're not _Lenne!_" Shuyin growled under rising anger, backing away and shaking his head at his own stupidity in falling for it. Furious that Yuna had used Lenne as a lure, he clenched fistfuls of pyreflies from the air surrounding him and summoned them into a spirit sword. Then, he summoned many more pyreflies into his own body, making his illusion solid enough to pack some serious physical force. Shuyin had nearly completed his transformation into a full-fledged fiend.

))((

Yuna pleaded with him to stop, but then she was forced to defend herself from an attack that she had seen Tidus use so many times - an attack so fast that he spun from opponent to opponent slashing with quick agile strokes. His perfect execution of Tidus's fighting style took her completely by surprise. Her concentration floundered.

_"He's not Tidus,"_ she told herself. _"He's an unsent fiend trying to kill us!" _Switching to her dark knight sphere once more, Yuna swung Caladbolg and actually managed to block and push back Shuyin's assault. _"You are not Tidus!"_ she felt like shouting at him as she swung again, angry at him for not being who she hoped he would be. Tears filled her eyes as she blocked another thrust from the spirit sword, but she kept her resolve against him, until finally, with the help of her friends, Shuyin was pushed back enough that he fell on his back and dropped his sword.

He could have cast magic to control their minds and regained control of the fight to win it. Yuna knew that. Instead, Shuyin sat up and buried his head into his forearms over one knee. He wasn't physically defeated, but his heart had given up. And with his head bowed like that, he did look exactly like Tidus. Yuna lowered her sword and then sheathed it, gesturing for her friends to hold back as well. Then, she switched her dress sphere back to the gunner. "Shuyin ..." She started to approach him.

Shuyin started to rise, but paused on his knees, refusing to look up at her. "You couldn't possibly understand," he quietly, resentfully responded, his voice carrying so much regret, even now.

But she did understand. That was the problem. Tidus wouldn't have lost heart and quit like that unless he felt like he had nothing left to lose. Shuyin had quit because he felt he had lost Lenne. Yuna winced at having to reconcile Tidus's and Shuyin's similarities again. _"Lenne, ..." _Yuna called within herself. _"Please talk to him. He needs to hear it from you, not me."_

))((

_"I know."_ Lenne tried not to use any magic during the battle, so now she was able to put all of her effort into pushing through that dress sphere once more. Knowing that in leaving the sphere, she would never be able to seek its sanctuary again, she fortified herself with the pyreflies in the magic of the dress sphere, then summoned more to help herself break free. With one more tremendous effort, Lenne's spirit finally penetrated the sphere grid's restraints and stumbled through Yuna's body. Standing on her own for the first time in a thousand years was a little wobbly, … a little scary. But this time she did not hesitate to walk away from Yuna to draw near to Shuyin's ghostly form.

))((

From where he knelt, Shuyin was surprised to see Lenne appear once more – her true spirit this time, not just an illusion of it. "Lenne?" He shook his head, suppressing hope that felt like it was going to choke him if he gave in to it one more time. It was another trick. He didn't want to hear any more of what she had to say. It would hurt too much. He tried to push her away, but she caught his hand between her own. She didn't fight back. She didn't scold him. She had released Yuna to come to him. "Lenne ..." His voice faltered as he raised his other hand to grasp both of hers. He felt as if he was about to fall apart beneath her apologetic gaze. After a thousand years, there was so much to say he hardly knew where to begin.

His overwhelmed, tongue-tied expression drew a warm smile of understanding. "Finally, ne?" she supplied it for him, drawing from his initial greeting to her in the Farplane glen.

"Ah," he agreed and tried to smile, as a tear he could no longer restrain slid down his cheek. "All of a thousand years spent ... and finally, … we get only this?"

"'Only this' is fine," she softly reassured him, then shook her head at his seeing the glass half-empty. "It's _more_ time. Your feelings alone are enough to fill my heart." She lifted his hand to her cheek. "So … let's end this already. Let's go home."

He shook his head in doubt, wondering how she could ever forgive him. "Are you sure?"

With no fear of what he had become, Lenne placed her hands on his shoulders and looked him squarely in the eye. "Anything and everything that happened was a thousand years ago," she told him in a frank manner. "We've come too far to turn back now." Her expression softened once more into a plea. "Let's sleep, Shuyin. Always together ..."

How could she want to be with him for an eternity after what he had let happen to her? In shame with silent tears, like a child bowing his head against his favorite plushy toy, Shuyin wrapped his arms around Lenne's legs to draw her closer and let his head rest against her skirt.

Lenne smiled and gently smoothed down some of that unruly blond hair as she cradled his head in her hands. "I have a new song to sing and give to you," she promised, as if picking up right where they left off with their daily lives before any war tore them apart.

Catching a breath and sniffling within the folds of her skirt, his hold on her legs shifted so that his hands blindly, restlessly settled around and then on her hips. After such a long, miserable journey trying to find her, he was never going to lose her again. Shuyin closed his eyes. He was tired of fighting. He was tired of existing in a half-life like this. He just wanted to go home, … wherever that was now.

Lenne turned to Yuna with tears in her eyes. "Thank you."

))((

Yuna smiled and nodded in return as she watched their spirits fade, entwined in a spiral of magical light and color. She didn't have to send them. They had both found what they were looking for, and they were already where they belonged. It wasn't the outcome she had hoped for when she was given that first sphere of Shuyin, but it was enough to make her feel truly happy for them, … and perhaps a little envious.

))((

During Yuna's battle, while the spirits of her father and his guardians were cheering her on, Bahamut couldn't ignore the fact that one spirit was noticeably missing. As soon as Lenne and Shuyin faded, the boy's soul flew back to the glen. "She did it! Yuna beat Vegnagun and Shuyin!" he announced with a grin.

Most of the spirits that had awakened and were waiting for word on the outcome shouted and hugged in celebration. Anyone standing in the glen at that moment would have seen a large flurry of pyreflies burst over the whole meadow like shimmering fireworks. But Dannae clasped her hands together in worry, and Kaila gave Bahamut a look warning him to break the other news to her gently.

"Everything's going to be okay. Shuyin's coming home with my sister," Bahamut told her, beginning to feel nervous about seeing them again ... after everything.

Dannae's relief came in the form of happy tears, and Kaila shared a smile with Bahamut that only the two of them could understand after laboring so hard over that little remnant of Shuyin's soul.

That reminded Bahamut of the other reason he came here so quickly. "Tidus! Can you hear me?" He flew to various lows and heights among the flowers and the falls. "Yuna's here! If she could just hear from you, I know it would make her very happy!"

When the entity did not show itself, Kaila caught up to him and shook her head. "I haven't seen Tidus since … Well, since you were turned into a dark aeon."

Determined to find him, Bahamut flew to the outer planes and checked each of the exits beneath the chambers of the Fayth. When he finally found the collection of pyreflies that housed Tidus's memories, he was beneath Vegnagun's chamber where Lord Braska ordered him to lead Yuna out.

"Tidus? Yuna's here! Would you like to see her again?"

These unique pyreflies did not take form because they were not capable of doing so on their own, but a faint thought touched Bahamut's mind - a memory. The voice belonged to that of a child.

_"Auron, where do people go when they die?"_

_"They go where their hearts lead them," _Auron's voice from the past answered.

_"Auron, where do dreams go when they die?" _the voice asked again, slightly altered.

_"They fade away,"_ Auron alternately answered.

Bahamut was stunned. The dream illusion's pyreflies had scattered too far and wide to communicate conventionally, but its consciousness was altering pieces of its own memories to express itself. "Okay, I know she can't really see you again, but … Ugh! Just ... come with me. We'll figure something out."

))((

Just as Yuna and her party were heading for the teleporter the Gullwings crew had placed in the Farplane glen for a safe and easy return to the ship, she heard a familiar whistle echo throughout the meadow. Holding her breath, she came to an immediate halt and scanned the field, but it seemed to come from everywhere at once and nowhere in specific.

Pyreflies coalesced near her as Bahamut materialized. "Thanks," he offered heartfelt gratitude for saving him, and Spira, once more.

"You're very welcome." She smiled. So, the Fayth still exist down here in a state of rest. That was nice to know.

"You heard it, didn't you?" he hinted. "You want to see him?"

"_Him?_" The question had caught Yuna off-guard, but there was only one person he could be talking about.

"Yes. You want to walk together again?"

She was hesitant to appear eager or selfish, and she didn't want to get her hopes up, only to be disappointed again. She'd had too much disappointment in her encounters with Shuyin. Still, her heart ached at the thought of passing up the possibility, … if there truly was one. Yuna answered his question with a small nod and a quiet, "Yes."

"I can't promise anything, but we'll do what we can," Bahamut told her.

Yuna smiled as the spirit faded, but then reached to detain him just a moment longer to ask what he meant by that. No use. The Fayth was already gone. Straightening, she looked around the magical glen once more, but the whistle did not repeat and no other familiar ghosts appeared. Confused, and already somewhat disappointed, Yuna hurried to catch up to her friends.

))((

"Bahamut!" Lenne gave her little brother a big hug as soon as her spirit arrived in the center of the glen. "We're home! We're finally home! Oh, it's so good to see you again!" Behind him, her mother and other spirits from within her family began appearing so they could welcome her in a similar manner.

"Lenne!" The boy laughed and returned her exaggerated hug that nearly bowled him over, but when she released him, his gaze shifted past her to where Shuyin stood.

Shuyin offered a sad smile, but made no move to otherwise greet him. It was the first time in a long time that he saw Bahamut for what he really was – a small boy. After what he had done to him, if the boy wanted nothing more to do with him, he completely understood.

Bahamut moved around his sister and mother to approach his "big brother" with caution, but then raised and wrapped his arms around the blitzball player's waist in a child-like manner, similar to how Shuyin held onto Lenne moments earlier.

"I'm sorry," Shuyin spoke, resting his hand on the boy's purple-hooded head. Lifting his gaze, he saw more spirits forming in the mists. So many dead souls – too many to count. Among them, he saw faces he knew. His father, his mother, and Kaila appeared before him. He could see teammates and classmates from throughout his entire life. But one face that he hoped to see was absent.

"Koji?" he asked of Kaila.

She sadly shook her head.

Stunned, Shuyin exchanged a worried look with Lenne. Then, he left Bahamut to draw Kaila into a hug. Kaila broke into tears, so relieved to finally have her friend back. Lenne moved forward to embrace both of them in their shared sorrow.

"He may never be able to forgive me, but he'll come home ... someday," Shuyin told them. Lifting his head above Kaila's to check the crowd one more time, however, he saw other familiar faces, too – the faces of his victims.

Burdened by the guilt of a thousand years, Shuyin let go of Lenne and Kaila and lowered himself to his knees, bowing his head to the ground in front of the entire gathering. "I am so sorry," he whispered in a broken voice as tears formed in his eyes once more. It didn't matter. That whisper could be heard all across the Farplane. "I won't ask for forgiveness, because I know I don't deserve it. But I'm starting to figure things out now, ... and I promise I will do everything I can to make amends somehow, ... even from this place."

"Shuyin, everyone here has made mistakes and needs forgiveness."

Shuyin lifted his tear-streaked face to see an unfamiliar spirit standing before him. The man wore a heavy, layered robe and an elaborate headdress, but met his confusion with a gentle smile. He was sure he'd seen his likeness somewhere before, but he couldn't place him.

"Please, … call me Braska." The man offered his hand encouraging him to stand. "Trust can be very difficult to fix once it's broken. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is not earned. It's freely given. Your mistake led to a miracle that gave my daughter life and hope, even if she doesn't know it yet. And for that I am grateful to you."

Shuyin looked at the extended hand and accepted it. "Your ... daughter?" he asked as he stood.

"Yuna."

Surprised to be meeting the high summoner's father, Shuyin lowered his gaze in shame. He had tried to kill her, yet her father was thanking him?

"Yeah, in a weird kind of way, your stubborn refusal to come home led to something good," Jecht added. "Can you forgive an old man?" He extended his hand – an apology and peace offering from a father who regretted not being able to see his son grow into a man. As Shuyin hesitantly accepted his father's hand, Jecht drew him in for a strong hug as well. "I'm proud of you, boy." It was a hard thing to say, but it was long overdue. "You got that crybaby business from your mother, but you got those fancy sword moves from me," he jokingly added and gave his son's shoulder a firm pat.

Shuyin snorted at the teasing remark and pulled back with a sniffle. "You wish."

Everyone that heard the remarks within the inner circle of the gathering laughed.

"Yep, you're Jecht's kid." Auron smirked in amusement at finally getting to meet the source of his headaches in Dream Zanarkand. "By the way, your shirt used to be good for that kind of thing when you were seven," he added just as Shuyin was about to wipe his cheek on the upper sleeve of his uniform.

Shuyin paused. "Do I know you?" He was certain he would have remembered a man with a long scar on his face.

"No," Auron happily answered. "But knowing one of you is enough."

"Huh?" That was an odd thing to say, … especially coming from someone he didn't know.

"Shu ..." Dannae stepped forward and gave her confused son a tearful hug. "I'm so sorry I didn't pay more attention to your needs. You took better care of me than I did of you, sometimes." His mother stepped back to admire him with a sad smile, but then her attention drifted to the pretty girl beside him. "You must be Lenne. It's so nice to finally meet you, Lenne."

Lenne dried a tear on her cheek, grinned, and gave a polite bow. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"He came in here looking for you once and ..." Dannae started crying again. "You have no idea what you've given back to me. I'm so glad to see him again, and now you can both rest with us."

"Yeah, but … what if I'm not ready to rest _just yet_?" Shuyin asked and turned around to see the surreal landscape of the meadow and beyond. "This place looks like it might be kinda fun to explore some more." He whirled back around to face Lenne. "Hey! We should go back to Zanarkand! The pyreflies there are thick enough that it wouldn't be any problem to walk around a little."

"Oh, good lords. You sound just like your brother," Jecht grumbled and shook his head.

Shuyin blinked in astonishment. "_Brother?_" Drawing back, he waved his hands in protest. "Woah, woah, woah. I have a brother? Which one of you had the affair?" He looked accusingly at his parents. "It was _you_, wasn't it?" He jabbed a finger at Jecht's chest. "It _had_ to be you."

Everyone laughed, including Dannae. "No, dear. Your father has always been faithful to me. Always."

Bahamut reluctantly stepped forward and tugged at Shuyin's shirt to reclaim his attention. "Actually, … remember that time when I came to see you in the cavern, and we had that big fight?"

Shuyin answered with a heavy sigh. "I'd rather not, but … yeah. What about it?"

"Well, since you refused to help us with our plans to fight Yu Yevon, I stole a little part of your soul to … make someone who would."

Shuyin blinked in surprise, started to laugh, but then realized he was the only one who seemed to think it was a joke. "You're kidding, … right?" When the boy shook his head, Shuyin was incredulous. "You _cloned_ me?"

"_Bahamut!_" Lenne's gasp was followed by a scolding frown.

"Was that part of your shoopuff snot science kit or something?" Shuyin fussed. "Because there better not be a shoopuff snot version of me running around out there somewhere, little dude!"

"I didn't use any shoopuff snot!" Bahamut quickly answered in his own defense. "That stuff was just a polymer. And ... he's not _really_ a clone."

"I'm guessing I should be thankful you didn't make me live through memories involving shoopuff snot," Auron said to Kaila, but Kaila only returned a bewildered shrug.

"They created an illusion of me first," Jecht explained. "But when Yevon possessed me and turned me into Sin, they decided to use you to break the spell."

"And it worked," Braska spoke up. "Or my daughter wouldn't be alive today. That's where your mistake became a miracle."

"But ..." Shuyin's brows dipped in confused anger. "Wait, _you_ were Sin?" he pointed an accusing finger at Jecht. "That thing that blew away Operation Mi'ihen and Kilika and -"

"Yevon possessed my mind and my body when I became Braska's Final Aeon, but I held back as much as I could so that your other half could end it."

"My other ..." Shuyin's protest was silenced when he remembered the day that he escaped the Den of Woe - the day that he saw Yuna traveling with someone that looked like him. "He's the one Yuna must have been looking for in my spheres."

"That's right!" Lenne remembered. "She kept a sphere in her drawer of a guy that looked and sounded exactly like you. Oh my gosh! He _really_ was you?"

"There's two of me?" He couldn't wrap his head around this.

"Not exactly." Kaila gave him a guilty, somewhat uncertain smile. "He may look, sound, and move like you. And sometimes he's just as cheesy as you. No, I take that back. He's actually more cheesy than you are. But Tidus is somehow different from you now."

Shuyin's expression went flat, except for one quirked brow. "Tidus?"

"Actually, he's different from everyone else, too. He's around here somewhere, but he's kinda all over the place, ... kinda restless." Kaila looked around for the tell-tale cluster of pyreflies.

"You _actually_ named him Tidus?" Shuyin still couldn't believe he was hearing this. "That's my signature - my trademark. You can't give someone else my trademark, Kaila," he complained.

"Yeah, because there's soooo many blitzballs for you to sign here in the Farplane. Besides, he's not someone else. He's you." Kaila pointed toward the pyreflies above them that were beginning to drift and spread like a nebula in its own small universe.

"Okay, that doesn't look anything like me." Still, Shuyin was amazed that they had been able to do such a thing - and astonished that they had chosen him of all people to supply the soul for it.

"Well, it's because the magic that made him was drawn from my memories of you. But when the Fayth were sent, so was the dream magic. So, he's like this now." She saddened as she looked up at the cluster of memories wrapped around the little spark of light. "The pieces of his soul are scattered all over the place, but he refuses to let go and rest - just like someone else we know."

"But he won't last this way forever," Bahamut added. "Tidus is fading."

))((

Author's Notes:

1) Disclaimer repeat on game dialog, and once more I switched to Japanese version and my own loose translations. The main reason this time is pretty much the same as last time. The English version Shuyin is too emotionally distant to be consistent with the Shuyin I've presented in this story, so I fell back on the original Japanese version to draw inspiration for a more emotionally vulnerable, unstable Shuyin. But there is also the matter of Yuna once again saying, "I love you," instead of her original "arigatou/ thank you" dialog. And finally, I didn't want to pass up Lenne's use of "Zutto isshoni/ always together" at the end - something that Yuna could somewhat envy.


	43. Chapter 43: Home

Chapter 43: Home

The souls of the Farplane remained clustered around the family and friends of the two newcomers as word passed around that Tidus was fading. This had been obvious to any spirit aware of him and his unique predicament for the past two years, but it came as a sad shock to Lenne. She knew how Yuna would have felt if she knew. "You mean … he's fading from the Farplane? I thought souls lasted forever in here."

Kaila winced, as if trying to explain this was going to be difficult at best. "Normally they do. But Tidus's soul is part of Shuyin. He's not a copy. Tidus lived and died as Shuyin. He just doesn't know it. He knows he's not real, but he still thinks he's a completely new person - and in many ways he is. He's proved that to us more than enough times."

"His body was made of illusion magic, and he has altered memories and new experiences – experiences that make him different from you," Bahamut explained to Shuyin. "But the Farplane reclaimed his physical substance almost as soon as he came here. And over the past two years, it's claimed most of his earliest memories, too – even some of the ones we gave him. He's fighting to hang onto more recent ones, though. We're not sure what will happen when all his memories dissolve, but we think his soul could become an empty shell with no knowledge of who he used to be."

Lenne saddened even more. "Like having amnesia or being brain dead?"

Her little brother nodded. "Something like that. For all we know, his soul might even melt away if it has no sense of self holding it together. It might be possible to save him if we merge him back into Shuyin to make both of them whole again, but that might also destroy him. Once he has access to Shuyin's memories, it might be as if Tidus never existed."

Shuyin put a hand to his chest, not certain he wanted to attempt an experiment like that. "Are you sure? Because when I talk to myself, I don't want to hear myself talk back, you know?"

Bahamut shrugged. "That's just it. I'm not sure. We've never done anything like this before."

"Will something happen to me if we're _not _merged back together?"

"I don't know. Nothing changed for you when he was created, right? However, everything has changed for him since he was sent." Bahamut studied Shuyin's expression before continuing. "Since it's your soul, it should be your decision what happens to him now. You don't have to decide anything right away. Just know that his memories are slowly fading, … and that's all he's got that makes him Tidus, instead of you." Bahamut gave a sympathetic sigh. "Also, there's Yuna. She would like to see him again, if we could find a way … somehow."

Shuyin's gaze returned to the collection of pyreflies overhead. "Does she love him?"

"Very much so," Lenne answered for Yuna, as she watched the little flecks of magic-trapped memories orbiting their tiny sun.

"And does he love her?"

Kaila saddened. "You have to ask? He let go of himself to protect her. He knew ending the dream would end his own existence, but he helped bring it to an end anyway for her sake, … and his friends, … and his father, … and us."

Shuyin lowered his chin to meet her meaningful gaze. "It's not just a passing fling."

Kaila was happy that he remembered their discussion about that, but sad that this was how it manifested for Tidus. "He's chosen this half-baked state of existence, when fading into nothingness could end his misery. We don't know if he's still here because he's waiting for her to join him, or if it's because he still hopes there's a way back. It's hard to communicate with him like this. But his essence is still in there … somewhere."

Shuyin looked to Lenne, who looked back at him as if there was only one obvious answer. "You have to send him back," he told Bahamut and Kaila.

"But, he's part of your soul," Bahamut warned. "If he doesn't rest, your sleep may never be very deep. It could mean a very long eternity for you."

"An eternity without sleep beats spending an eternity separated from the person you love. Always searching … I've been there already. I know what that's like." Shuyin gave his head a shake. "Yuna understood better than I thought. Please, ... send him back to her. I owe her for what she's given me." He looked to Lenne and felt her fingers lace between his own as she smiled back at him.

Bahamut was pleased Shuyin felt that way about it. "Then the only thing holding us back is that we don't know how to do it."

Lenne released Shuyin's hand to pace a few steps back and forth among the moon flowers. "He was originally made from illusion magic – memories – right? If it's anything like summoning aeons, maybe I could give it a try."

The boy glanced to Lord Braska, remembering their discussion, and shook his head. "If the illusion made in here is to be carried out there, it needs to be done by someone who exists in the material and spirit realms at the same time – someone like Sin." His gaze shifted to Shuyin. "Or you."

Shuyin's eyes narrowed with suspicion, and he pointed to himself. "Me?"

Surprised, but amused, Lenne pulled his pointed gesture away from his own face and patted his hand. "Blitzball player by day; summoner by night … Looks like maybe I wasn't the only one moonlighting?"

His brief smirk easily fell to shame. "Hardly."

"I'm talking about my dark aeon," Bahamut hesitantly reminded him.

"Yeah, I … know." Shuyin scratched his nose and sighed.

"You're the one who turned him against Yuna?" Lenne quietly asked.

It killed him to see the disappointment in her eyes. "I'm -"

She placed her fingers over his lips to stop the apology before he could say it. "It doesn't matter now. It's over. How can we use it to help her?"

Shuyin pulled her hand from his mouth. "You don't want me helping Yuna. The magic I used to summon the dark aeons isn't even real summoning magic. It's force. It's ..." He didn't know how to describe it because he didn't know how he came to have that ability.

Kaila crouched and ran a hand over the tops of the moon flowers stirring up some lazy pyreflies. "Shuyin, did you ever touch Sin?"

"Once. I bumped into it near Bevelle when it was drawing souls to join it, but … that wasn't what I wanted." He crouched in front of her. "You think that's where the dark magic came from?"

"And the dark feelings," Bahamut agreed. "You used to feel like raw emotion, but you must have shed the toxin when you came here." He lightly patted the top of Shuyin's head. "I don't feel anything like that around you now."

"Without Sin's toxin, can you still use the magic?" Kaila picked one of the moon flowers.

"I don't know. Honestly, … I'm a little afraid to try."

"The toxin that taints your soul is still in you," a voice spoke from the outer circle of the gathered souls. "It's just calm in this place of rest." Everyone looked up in shock as the outer circle parted to allow High Summoner Yu Yevon through. "The toxin has fortified your spirit, allowing it to travel through reality in ways that most spirits cannot. Your ability to possess other souls will work regardless of which plane you exist on. However, you won't last long in the material world without a living host before you're banished back here. And only a living soul, or an unsent one with a living shell, is capable of summoning life back into reality." As Yevon came to stand before Shuyin and Lenne's inner circle of friends and family, Shuyin and Kaila straightened, and Lenne offered a flustered bow out of habit. The glen became silent except for the eerie sounds of pyreflies drifting about.

Yevon scanned the wary expressions on everyone's faces, then greeted Lenne with a polite bow of his own. "Perhaps I am the last person you'd want to see here, welcoming you home, but I never got to commend you for your service to Zanarkand during the war. I've been listening to this discussion with much interest, and I think I can help," he said to everyone gathered. "I know of a way around your dilemma. It involves a spell similar to that used when summoning the Final Aeon."

Shuyin frowned and folded his arms in a defiant manner. "Yeah? Well, maybe we don't want your help." Beside him, even Lenne looked skeptical about the High Summoner's intentions now.

Yevon met their unhappy frowns with a wan smile. "Understandable. Your faith in me was … undeserved. I failed both of you, and I humbly apologize for letting you down. But I truly was trying to save as many people as I could. I made the mistake of allowing myself to become blinded by frustration and hate in the process."

A snarky insult nearly slipped from Shuyin's tongue, but he caught it when he realized he couldn't say anything to Yevon about his past that wouldn't also boomerang back on himself. Annoyed that all he could do was be annoyed, Shuyin settled for an angry snort as a response.

"If you choose not to trust me," Yevon continued. "I will leave. But each of you played a role in freeing me from my madness, … especially that little experimental illusion and Lady Yuna." He glanced up to Tidus's pyreflies, then back down to Lenne. "I can think of no better way to show my gratitude than to help him live again, if that's what they both want."

"We want to give life, not take it or trade it." It was the first time Lenne had confronted the man about his plans for her since learning the truth about them a thousand years ago.

"Of course. Allow me to explain. You know that the bond between the summoner and the guardian is very special. It's the same kind of bond allows a soul to become a Fayth - a voluntary willingness to trust and serve. But an aeon of great power, such as the one granted at the Zanarkand shrine, requires a _very_ strong bond of trust between a summoner and guardian because only a pure desire to protect one another can draw two souls together through death and back to life to fight as one. The guardian voluntarily allows the summoner to possess him, fortifying his aeon's body and guiding his actions. The summoner voluntarily surrenders his own physical body to do so." Yevon's gaze rested on Braska and Jecht.

"What he says is true," Braska confirmed against the doubting looks among their company.

"And then they both die," Jecht grumbled at his former captor.

Yevon pursed his lips and nodded in acceptance of the blitzball player's anger. "I am willing to stand before your judge and jury to explain more about that another time. But in this case, you don't want to create anything new, so no one will have to die. You just want to throw the creation you already have out there into the real world. But it needs someone strong enough to pull it through from the other side – someone that wants it to be real. If the bond between Lady Yuna and her guardian is as strong as you say it is – if it is as strong as the bond of the Final Summoning - her living soul can act as a lightning rod to his. Nothing more."

"Yuna … won't be hurt?" Braska asked with caution.

"And he won't be turned into an aeon?" Jecht remained doubtful.

"Neither of them will be hurt," Yevon promised. "This is not that kind of spell. It only resembles it because it requires a very strong bond of trust to dissolve the boundary between life and death. Without this spell, all you are giving them is a pyrefly illusion – a ghost. They would not be able to touch because he would still be bound inside the flow of magic."

"How do we get her to summon him?" Lenne asked, not sure she understood. "We can't go to her anymore."

"If her desire to be with him again is strong enough, it becomes an act of summoning in itself. If his will to live is strong enough, and he is able to sense her thoughts and feelings, he may be strong enough to pull himself through the portal, … with a little push from us. All we need is a location close to her, a lot of pyreflies, a portal into reality, and someone who _can_ go to her to set up the lightning rod." He turned to face Shuyin.

"And of course you stick me with the lightning rod," he muttered in response. "Lucky me."

"I think it's worth a try," Lenne decided and looked aroudn to see if anyone else was in agreement.

"But I don't know how to do this kind of magic," Shuyin complained.

"Then do your own kind of magic, and leave the summoning to us. You are connected to him in a way no one else can be. You have to deliver his message, since he cannot deliver it himself." Yevon told him.

Lenne's expression lit with a sudden smile. "I know how you can do it! I know how you can reach Yuna." She turned to Kaila and gestured to the moon flower that she held. "May I?"

Kaila nodded and passed the magical flower to Lenne.

"Speak to her using my sphere." Lenne passed the flower to Shuyin. "And give her this."

))((

Valefor led the way through the streams of magic flowing away from the Farplane into the ocean among the sunken ruins off the coast of Besaid. "I don't see it right now, but Yuna lives on an airship that is usually parked here on the beach. Wherever she's gone to, I'm sure the airship will come back to this spot when she comes home."

Shuyin looked at the canopy of saltwater above them. He admired the way the sun danced and sparkled over the surface of the water, casting beams of ethereal light through the ruins and onto the sand. "You know what I'm thinking?" He grinned at Lenne as he swam toward a crumbled tower full of red and blue coral, black seaweed, and tiny yellow, purple, and pink fish. "I'm thinking this would make a good fixer-upper to replace the houseboat. It's a little late to get flood insurance, and the monkey would drown, but ..."

Lenne laughed as she looked into one of the barnacle-encrusted windows. "But the view is spectacular, right?" she said as the school of colorful fish swam by.

High Summoner Yevon looked at the ruins with a sigh. "This was my doing. It used to be a beach resort city. I hope Besaid can rebuild someday. Until then, this is a good a location for the portal. Lenne, would you help Yunalesca gather the Fayth and volunteer summoners into a circle."

Lenne smiled at Shuyin and gave him a kiss as she swam away to help do one last communal summoning for Yuna's sake. He loved the way her long hair flowed around her like that. Once again, it reminded him of a mermaid, … which reminded him of their trip to the hot spring, … which made him smile.

"Kaila and Bahamut." Yevon turned to them. "I need you to start working on some pyreflies." Summoning his staff, he cast a magical glyph in the center of the circle that was forming. "With a little help, of course." Placing a hand on her head, he cast the same spell over her that allowed her to construct memories out of pyreflies in the dream."

Kaila was happy to swim into the glowing symbol and begin summoning her memories back into a semi-solid illusion. "Tidus?" she called with a soft voice that echoed through the plane of magic. Pyreflies began streaming toward her from various directions, followed by a little nucleus of light. Bahamut then drew upon his own summoning magic to fold the scattered memories around the soul and into the image.

Shuyin watched in silent fascination as his friends recreated a new version of him – Abes uniform and all. He moved into the circle for a closer look, when Yevon caught his arm and pulled him back.

"You are the lightning rod. Once I open the portal, we won't have much time."

Shuyin nodded, remembering his task. A lightning rod draws lightning toward it, so that it doesn't strike somewhere it's not wanted. Tidus needed Yuna's undivided attention if this was going to work. Shuyin knew _what_ he had to do. He just didn't know _how_.

With the initial illusion finished, Kaila and Bahamut examined him once more to make sure nothing was amiss. Then, they joined the circle with the other summoners and Fayth. All spirits in the circle joined hands to draw a greater multitude of pyreflies - so many that the illusion itself would not be able to distinguish magic from reality. As the illusion's body became more dense, Yu Yevon stepped forward, lifted his summoning staff, and nodded to Shuyin. Then, he began to dance. The summoners and Fayth in the circle began to dance around him. It was a sending dance, but it was being done in reverse.

Wasting no more time, Shuyin broke away from the other spirits and sped down the stream of magic toward the beach. To anyone watching, it would have looked like one stray pyrefly suddenly swam away from an unusually active group of other pyreflies. But no one on the beach was paying any attention to the current of pyreflies in the ocean depths. Shuyin was trying to think of the best way he could hop around in the real world, and he knew he found the vehicle he was looking for when a blitzball plunged into the water, but then slowly floated back to the surface. As soon as the owner of the ball came swimming toward it, Shuyin cast his magic.

Wakka grabbed the ball, but then turned toward Lulu, who was sitting on the beach letting Vidina play in the sand. "Hey, Lu! Where's Yuna?"

Lulu looked up from casting a shield over the baby to protect his fair skin from the sun. "She said she was going to Luca today, remember? New Yevon, The Youth League, and The Machine Guild announced they were holding a public conference at the stadium."

"Yeah, but would she be on the airship or just walking around somewhere?"

"How would I know?"

"Okay, do you know where she keeps her sphere of Tidus?"

"What?"

"Oh wait! Lenne said it was in a drawer somewhere! Nevermind. Thanks!" Shuyin withdrew his magic from Wakka's mind.

Lulu blinked at Wakka as if he'd lost it. "Lenne who?"

Wakka had no idea why she would be asking such a thing. "I don't know. Who's Lenne?"

"That's what I'm asking you. And what do you want with Yuna's sphere?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" He swam back to the shore. "I'm not the one asking weird questions, ya? Crazy woman …"

Shuyin snickered to himself as he sped down the magical current in the water toward Luca. When he reached the docks, the red airship was easy to find. Modern Spira had so few air machina. In Zanarkand, many machina also had magic powering them in some way. Shuyin hoped this was one of those machina.

Swimming through the stream of magic, toward the landing gear, he flowed from the stream of magic into the machina's inner circuitry, then sped through the airship's construct and wires. He got shocked multiple times when the magic flow broke off in one place and picked up in another, and he cursed Yevon's lightning rod idea with each zap; but he hung on tenaciously as he raced through the levels, until he found the deck that looked like the ship's bridge.

"Hey, what's wrong with this scanner?" Buddy complained, giving his monitor an annoyed smack. The sudden static and black-outs usually meant another part needed replacing, and he was in no mood for emergency maintenance.

"Brother!" Yuna's voice came through the speakers. "It's time to go home!"

"Then prepare for lift-off!" Brother exclaimed from his pilot seat. The airship rumbled as the engines kicked in.

From within Buddy's scanner, Shuyin cast his magic. "Hey, Yuna? Where are you?"

"Top deck with Paine and Rikku."

"Top deck? That's too windy for pyreflies," Buddy fussed.

"We want to enjoy the ride!" she happily answered.

"Great! First I get electrocuted, and now I'm going to get blown away. Next time _I_ open the portal and _he _gets to set up the lightning rod," Buddy growled unhappily and jumped from his seat to run to the lift.

Brother and Shinra blinked in dismay at Buddy's exit. Shinra stood to check the monitor, which seemed to be working perfectly.

))((

After Vegnagun's defeat, the three faction leaders that had gone missing returned and arranged to hold a joint conference in the Luca stadium that was open to all factions' members and the general public. Their aim was to demonstrate their own unification in hopes of mending the political fracturing they had caused since the beginning of the Eternal Calm. Then, all three of them bowed in apology to the people of Spira who believed in them.

"Somehow we forgot." Baralai's voice echoed throughout Luca as his image displayed on the large screens along the central walkway. "There's a much larger ship out there. One we've been riding ever since we were born. That ship is Spira." (1)

The crowds cheered and applauded. Of course, few people knew the literal truth behind his statement and all that machina under Bevelle, but that was a secret New Yevon needed to keep for now.

"No one knows just where our voyage will lead us. But we do know one thing." Nooj looked to his buddies, and a rare smile touched his lips. "One way or another, we will get by. We'll go on living. The Calm will continue," he assured the stadium full of people.

There were more cheers and applause.

"Just one more thing." Gippal bent to the microphone. "We all owe thanks to a very special lady." He milked the crowd for a few more cheers for a moment. "Yeah, you all know who I'm talking about. We really hoped that she could be here today. She left a message. She said she's going home. So farewell, but not goodbye."

He had no sooner said it than all three heads turned to watch the airship Celsius rise high above Luca and shoot off into the bright blue sky toward Besaid.

))((

"Brother! Higher!" Yuna's voice came through the speakers within the ship's lower deck.

"Rogeru!" Brother's voice answered.

Buddy ignored their fun as he ran into the cabin and up the stairs to Yuna's bed. Quickly, he began pulling open drawers and sifting through them. Then, after a few minutes, he suddenly stopped because he had the feeling he was being watched. Turning around revealed no one, but adjusting his line of sight down, he found Shinra staring up at him.

The Al Bhed boy shook his head. "I'm going to pretend I didn't see this. It's a sad statement about your need for a holiday. Brother sent me to tell you to get back to your chair. The scanner is working fine now."

Buddy rolled his eyes at how this must have looked. "Wait. Yuna wants her sphere of Tidus, but she didn't tell me which drawer she keeps it in."

"Whichever one has a keepsake box, of course. Where else would a girl keep something like that?" Shinra shook his head again and walked away.

"Keepsake box." Buddy fumbled with the drawers again until he found the small chest at the back of one of them. He pulled a lacy bra away from it, paused to remind himself he shouldn't be lingering with the thing, then set the chest on Yuna's bed and quickly opened it. Removing the sphere, he touched the activation button. Shuyin didn't have to watch the whole thing because seeing himself talking to her was weird enough to confirm it was the right one. Setting the sphere on her pillow, Shuyin released his magic hold on Buddy.

Buddy was clearly confused about what he was doing near Yuna's bed, especially since Yuna was not around. But his only witness seemed to be a single pyrefly hovering near the sphere.

Shuyin watched Buddy make a hasty retreat from the strange experience, then reached into his pocket and removed the moon flower. He started to place it beside the sphere, but then realized the magical flower wouldn't last if he left it unprotected like that. Instead, Shuyin's fingers passed through the glass sphere to place the flower inside it. The magical water from Lake Macalania might be able to preserve it.

Now that he had no living host or magical current to flow in, however, Shuyin knew his time in reality would start ticking down. On his way through the lift to seek out Yuna, he found her and her friends coming down from the top deck. Grateful that she was no longer in the blustery wind, the pyrefly slipped unnoticed into Yuna's sphere grid and then his strong energy reached through it into her mind. _"Yuna … Come to the beach. I'll be waiting for you."_ Message delivered, Shuyin released the dress sphere, slipped back through the ship's circuitry, and fell into the sky. He still had one more task to do.

))((

On the upper deck, Yuna had been thinking of how Tidus's sphere had led to this grand adventure. She had been wishing she could tell him about it, since he hadn't been there to experience it. But hearing his voice in her mind like that … Was she imagining it? No. It couldn't have been imagined. His voice had been close and strong, as if he was there, speaking directly to her. "Oh my gosh! Tidus!" Leaving Rikku and Paine with questioning looks on their faces, Yuna broke into a run for the bridge.

"Brother! Buddy! Shinra! Have any of you picked up any unusual signals from Besaid's beach? Anything at all?"

"No, but ..." Shinra cast a slanted glance toward Buddy. "If you want unusual signals, you might want to check your drawers."

Buddy broke into a nervous sweat. "Why would she want to do that? She's looking for a sphere in the scanners, right?"

"Sphere? My sphere!" Yuna turned and raced back down the hall to the lift.

"What's -"

"Yunie?"

"Sorry! No time!" Yuna apologized to Paine and Rikku, shutting the doors on them. As soon as the lift settled on the lower deck and opened again, Yuna raced through the cabin and up the stairs to her bed. She was stunned to see her drawers turned out, but even more stunned to see her sphere of Tidus was out of its box and on her pillow. Her heart nearly stopped, however, when she picked it up to find a single flower from the Farplane glen within its glass.

_"I can't promise anything, but we'll do what we can," Bahamut had told her._

Feeling as if she could barely catch her breath, Yuna dropped the sphere on the bed and ran back to the lift. As soon the doors opened to the engine room, she rushed to the window. "Faster, Brother! Hurry!" Still above the clouds it was impossible to see anything below, but she knew he was down there. "Open the hatch!"

"It would be helpful if we landed first, yes?" Brother's voice came over the speakers.

"Yunie, what's going on?" Rikku took over the link, sounding almost as excited as Yuna.

"He's here! He's back! Just open the hatch!" She anxiously ran to the closed exit ramp.

))((

Shuyin flew back to the summoning circle as fast as he could. Yevon's portal burned through the stream of magic into the ocean itself. With no time to waste, Shuyin grabbed Jecht and Auron as he swept over them. "Come on! Help me push him through before it closes!" The three of them snatched the illusion and swam with him to the portal releasing him into the pyreflies of the ruins.

Swirling around the reborn illusion one last time, Shuyin cast his magic, but only briefly touched his twin soul's mind before letting him go. "_Wake up. She's waiting for you."_ The lightning rod connected. Yevon's spell ignited with a flash of stormy spirit magic. When the bubbles, lightning, and pyreflies cleared, their illusion was gone.

))((

Sensation ... He could hear the waves of the ocean, dull and far-reaching beyond him. With only a moment of initial hesitation, Tidus lifted his chin and found that the could move again. Giving his small body a big stretch overdue from a long hibernation, he grinned at the feeling of the cold, salty water on his skin once more. There was sunlight up above, so he swam toward it. Breaking the surface, he filled his lungs with air for the first time in two years. Treading water, he turned around to see where he was. Besaid ...

He had no idea how or why he arrived. He only knew he was glad to be back. After giving a loud, shrill whistle to let Yuna know he was here, he smiled at the warmth of the sun on his face and lay back in the water to watch the clouds pass while he waited to be found. Less than a second later, he decided he had waited long enough and swam for the shore.

As he waded through the shallow tide toward the beach, however, he heard a distant roar in the sky and behind him. _What the ...?_ He squinted into the sun to see it better. _An airship …_ An airship he didn't recognize … An airship he didn't recognize that was moving so fast it looked like it was going to run him over in a few seconds! Too stunned to run, he tried to shield himself with his arms as it swooshed down over him, blowing wind and water in a turbulent spray. But when he heard machina grinding and realized he was still standing, he turned around to see someone running down the opening hatch. Yuna leaped into the water before the ship could even touch the ground. Tidus was surprised by her arrival, but congratulated himself on an exceptionally well-done whistle.

Yuna crashed into him with a full-body hug that nearly plowed him backwards. Tidus wrapped his arms around her, both of them refusing to give up the embrace.

"Are you … the real thing?" she asked, afraid to hear the answer, afraid let him go. (2)

He felt real enough, however, they had both been fooled once before by his surreal existence. "Maybe." His soft response reflected his uncertainty. The memory of fading from reality was still too fresh to take anything for granted.

Yuna reluctantly released her hold on his neck to step back and survey him. Hesitantly, she placed her palms over his chest and gave a light press. Her hands didn't pass through him this time.

Tidus was relieved to feel her touch. His clothing felt cold and wet, and his skin felt warm, already beginning to dry a bit. But he couldn't trust his own senses to know whether he was real or not. Did he even look like himself anymore? He couldn't tell if she was disappointed with what she saw. "Do I pass?" he asked, his brows rising with a measure of worry.

"Mh." Yuna nodded with smile of approval. "You're back."

"I'm back." A wave of emotion nearly overwhelmed him as he pulled her to his chest, wrapping one arm over her shoulders and the other around her waist. "I'm home," he repeated in a grateful, broken voice. Burying his face into the base of her neck, he struggled to stay in control over the tears that were forming, even if they were tears of joy.

Yuna closed her eyes and allowed herself to be wholly engulfed in his embrace once more. "Welcome home."

))((

With the reverse-sending rites over, the spirits commended each other for their success and began their flight back through the stream of magic to the Farplane to rest once more.

"Thank you," Lenne told Yevon as the High Summoner started to go.

"Glad to be of help." He nodded and looked to Shuyin. "I guess I'm starting to figure things out now." With a small smile, the ancient summoner's pyreflies dispersed and he went on his way.

"See you back in the glen!" Jecht called to his son. With waves, he, his wife, and his friends were gone.

"Thank you. Both of you." Kaila gave Shuyin and Lenne hugs. "_Rest_," she sternly reminded him with an accusing finger, as she pulled away and disappeared.

Lenne chuckled lightly and looked to Shuyin as if waiting for him to defy the order.

"So, ... what do we now?" he asked, turning to her.

Lenne laughed at the expected answer and slipped her hand into his as they swam through the stream of magic back toward the Farplane. "Now, we can rest."

"But that sounds so boring," he complained. "I got a little brother now. I say we go pick on him. That's what little brothers are for, right?" He reached to give Bahamut's head a scrub since he swam along beside them.

Bahamut grinned. It was good to have the real Shuyin back. Then he raced ahead of them, leaving them alone.

"We could haunt him, you know? I could go out there and hide his blitzball or something. I could make his reflection pull funny faces at him in the mirror, or put words in his mouth that he shouldn't say, or make him have funky dreams so that he talks in his sleep or wakes up with drool running down his chin. This could be really fun."

Lenne laughed at his prank ideas, but then her laughter became softened by unexpected tears.

"Hey, ..." Shuyin drew near in apology. "I was just kidding. If you want me to sleep the deep sleep, I'll sleep, okay? Promise."

Lenne dried her eyes. "Shuyin, if you're not ready to rest, I'll go wherever you want to go. It's just … I never got to tell you how much I love you before all this happened."

"Yes, you did. I understood."

She touched his cheek. "It's so nice to see you smile again, ... to know that it's really you." Laying her head and hands on his chest, she smiled, too. "Welcome home, Shuyin."

Drawing his arms around her, he rested his cheek against her forehead and closed his eyes with a sigh of contentment. "I'm home."

))((

"Every man has his follies - and often they are the most interesting thing he has got." - Josh Billings

The End

))((

Author's Note:

1) This line from Baralai about Spira being a ship is what inspired the first story in this series and the whole idea that their world might be made of machina. I just find it very ironic that a church that forbids technology would have so much technology underneath it – even down in the Farplane.

2) I had originally just cut and pasted Tidus and Yuna's reunion scene from my "Spira's Dream" story, but I decided to revamp it a bit and keep it from Tidus's perspective. The dialog is my translation of the Japanese version. I chose the switch because, again, I prefer the emotion that comes across in his Japanese actor's voice. (Yes, I realize no one else might share my dilemma hearing two voice actors in my head and having to choose one over the over.) ^_^ But also because I wanted to add a note on two phrases: "okaeri" and "tadaima". I sooooo wish there was a better way to translate these! Basically, they mean "welcome home" and "I'm home" (or "welcome back" and "I'm back"). But they mean so much more than that here. In Japan, these phrases are used as family members come and go from home. For Yuna and Tidus to exchange them under these circumstances means they both feel this is where he has family – this is where he belongs. He really says "Tadaima" twice in his dialog, but I broke it into two different translations to try to stress the intimacy felt the second time he says it. I noticed the English version did the same thing. Just a little background on this scene's dialog if you didn't already know.

I would like to thank all those who left reviews during the original version's posting, and for those who leave reviews for this current post. Thanks for reading! Your kind words and encouragement are very much appreciated. ^_^ I will take a short break for some reading and other projects that need finishing, and then I will begin revision and upload of the final story in this series. It's called "Spira's Revenge". It picks up where "Spira's Sphere" left off, but events from this story are also relative to that one.

M'jai~


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